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Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2011 with funding from 
The Library of Congress 



http://www.archive.org/details/boytravellersins01knox 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN 



SOUTHERN EUROPE 



ADVENTURES OF TWO YOUTHS IN A JOURNEY THROUGH 

ITALY, SOUTHERN FRANCE, AND SPAIN, WITH VISITS TO GIBRALTAR AND 
THE ISLANDS OF SICILY AND MALTA 



BY 



THOMAS W. KNOX 



AUTHOR OP 

THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN THE FAR EAST" "IN SOUTH AMERICA" "IN RUSSIA" "ON THE CONGO 

"IN AUSTRALASIA" "IN GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND" "IN NORTHERN EUROPE" 

"IN CENTRAL EUROPE" AND "IN MEXICO" "THE YOUNG NIMRODS " ETC. 



3Uu5trate& 






NEW YOEK 
HARPER & BROTHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE 

1894 



IN'^^^ 



By THOMAS "W. KNOX. 



THE " BOY TRAVELLERS " SERIES. Copiously Illustrated. Square 8vo, Cloth, 
Ornamental, $3 00 per volume. Volumes sold separately. 

Adventures of Two Youths — 



In Southern Europe. 

In Central Europe. 

In Northern Europe. 

In Great Britain and Ireland. 

In Mexico. 

In Australasia. 

On the Congo. 



In the Russian Empire. 
In South America. 
In Central America. 
In Egypt and Palestine. 
In Ceylon and India. 
In Siam and Java. 
In Japan and China. 



HUNTING ADVENTURES ON LAND AND SEA. Two Volumes. Copiously Illus- 
trated. Square 8vo, Cloth, Ornamental, $2 50 each. The vohimes sold sejjarateli/. 

The Young Nimrods in North America. I The Y^oung Nimrods Around the World. 



4^ Any of 



Published by HARPER & BROTHERS, New York. 

above volumes sent by mail, postage prepaid, to any part of the United States, 
Canada, or Mexico, on receipt of the price. 



Copyright, 1893, by Harper & Brothers. — All rights reserved. 



PREFACE 



IE" the preceding volume of this series {The Boy Travellers in Central 
Euro])e) we left our young friends at Buda-Pesth, where they had ar- 
rived from Vienna by way of the Danube. Having finished with their 
observations of the capital of Hungary, they were debating where to go 
next, and left the decision of the question to Mrs. Bassett and Mary. 
Having seen ]N"orthern and Central Europe, it was quite natural that Mrs. 
Bassett should desire to visit the countries bordering on the Mediter- 
ranean, and she promptly suggested that their faces should be turned 
in the direction of Italy. Mary supported with great earnestness her 
mother's proposition, and the arrangements for the journey were speed- 
ily made. The railway carried the party from Buda-Pesth to Trieste, 
and from the latter city to Venice, where our story opens. From Venice 
through Italy, and thence along their devious route till we leave the 
travellers at Gibraltar, Mrs. Bassett and Mary have been the constant 
companions of Frank and Fred, and have added materially to the inter- 
est of the journey. The former has continued to profit by her expe- 
riences of foreign lands and people, and the latter has shared with her 
brother and cousin in making note of what was seen, heard, and expe- 
rienced day by day. Her prominence in the narrative is fully as great 
as it was in The Boy Travellers in Central Europe^ and we are sure 
that the reader will admire, and possibly envy, her intelligence, her 
keenness of observation, and her constant determination to learn as 
much as possible of the countries through which she is passing. 

The scheme that has been followed in the preparation of the pre- 
ceding volumes of " The Boy Travellers " is continued in the present 
narrative, and the readers of " Southern Europe " will find the same 
characters and the same form of conversation, note-taking, and record- 
keeping that they found in " Great Britain and Ireland," " JSTorthern 
Europe," and " Central Europe." Doctor Bronson was absent until the 
journey was near its completion, business and professional engagements 
having kept him away ; but it will be readily understood by all who 
liave followed the careers of Frank Bassett and Fred Bronson. that 



iV PREFACE. 

the young men were fully competent to manage all the details of 
the journey. If any testimony to that effect is needed, it will be 
promptly supplied by Mrs. Bassett and Mary, whose comfort and pleas- 
ure were carefully looked after from the first day of the journey till 
the last, just as they had been looked after in the expeditions already 
described. 

The author has taken the same care to insure historical and geo- 
graphical accuracy in this account of Southern Europe that he took in 
previous volumes of " The Boy Travellers " series. Should errors be 
found, he trusts that they will be attributed to the authorities consulted 
rather than to negligence in the work of consultation. Wherever dis- 
crepancies occur in the authorities the writer has given preference to those 
of greatest weight, or to those whose statements seemed to be confirmed 
by other events. 

IN'early all of the routes described in this volume have been personally 
travelled by the author, and some of them more than once, and nearly 
every city, town, or other place of interest which has been visited by 
" The Boy Travellers" in Southern Europe was previously visited by him. 
As far as possible he has aimed to speak from personal knowledge, but 
he has not hesitated to use the work of other travellers over the same 
ground, and believes that he has done so to the advantage of the reader. 
The authorities thus drawn upon have been mentioned in the pages of 
the volume, and need not be repeated in the Preface. Statistical informa- 
tion concerning populations, manufactures, commerce, military and naval 
forces, and the like, have been obtained from ofiicial sources, or, where 
such were lacking, from the most authentic of non-official publications. 
Dimensions of buildings, parks, etc., heights of mountains, and kindred 
measurements have been taken from guide-books, either general or local, 
and in some cases from measurements made by the author during his 
visits to the places described. 

The Avriter hereby tenders his acknowledgments to the courtesy 
of Messrs. Harper & Brothers for the privilege of using such of the 
illustrations as were originally prepared for other of their publications. 

With this brief explanation of the manner in which the story of 
the journey through Southern Europe has been prepared, the author 
submits it to critics and readers, including alike the friends of the ami- 
able Mrs. Bassett and the school companions of Frank, Fred, and Mary, 
with the hope that it may receive the same kindly and generous greeting 
accorded to other volumes that describe the wanderings and give the 
observations of " The Boy Travellers." 

T. W. K. 

New Youk, July, 1893. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 



Yenice ; " The City of the Sea." — Mrs. Bassett and the Gondola ; The Cabs of Venice. — 
A Quotation from Byron. — Along the Grand Canal. — Scraps of History. — A Street of 
Palaces. — A Palatial Interior. — Construction of the Houses. — Mosaic Floors, and how 
they were Made. — Founding of Venice. — The Rialto and its History. — Streets and 
Canals. — Mrs. Bassett's Perplexity. — Mary's Query. — Shopping and Calling by Water. 
— The Piazza San Marco. — Procurazie, and their Origin. — Venetian Souvenirs. — Church 
of St. Mark - . Pages 1-20 

CHAPTER II. 

Ascending the Campanile; View from the Top. — Napoleon's Ride. — Church of St. Mark; 
Mosaics, and Other Ornaments ; History of the Church ; The Bronze Horses ; Pala 
D'Oro ; Relics of St. Mark. — At the Cafe. — Flower-girls and Peddlers of Souvenirs. — 
Feeding the Pigeons op Venice; Legend Concerning Them; How the Pigeons Know the 
Hours. — The Clock -tower. — A Moonlight Excursion. — Scraps of History. — Palace of 
THE Doges; Giants' Staircase; Origin of the Name; Golden Staircase; Hall of the 
Grand Council, and Other Halls; Portraits op the Doges. — Bridge op Sighs. — Mrs. 
Bassett's Comment. — The Prison and its Dungeons . . 21-39 

CHAPTER HI. 

The Arsenal; Trophies of Venetian Wars; Ancient Galley; Galley-slaves, and Their 
Life; The Bucintoro. — Ceremony op Marrying Venice to the Adriatic. — Academy op 
Fine Arts, and Other Sights. — The Lido. — A Visit to Murano ; Its Famous Industry. — 
Venetian Glass, and how it is Made. — What our Friends Heard and Saw at Murano ; 
Description op Murano in 1495. — Leaving Venice ; Examination op Baggage. — A Free 
Port. — Padua, and its Church. — St. Anthony of Padua. — The Italian Government, and 
HOW IT IS Administered. — The King and Parliament. — Count Cavour, and avhat he 
Did. — Formation of the Kingdom. — Verona. — The Quadrilateral ..... 40-60 

CHAPTER IV. 

The Arena at Verona; Its History and Present Condition; Uses that are Made op It. — 
The Lottery in Italy. — The Tombs op the Scaligers. — History of the Della Scala 
Family. — Mary's Question. — Dante ; His Life at Verona ; Monument to his Memory ; 
Sketch of his Career. — Romeo and Juliet ; Juliet's Tomb ; The House op the Capulets ; 
Story op Juliet. — Da Porta and his Narrative. — A Sentimental Visit. — The Piazza 
dell'Erbe. — Building op the Municipio. — Cathedral and Church of San Zeno ; Titian's 
Painting ; St. Zeno's Sermons. — Paul Veronese and his History. — Excursion to the 
Battle-field of Custozza. — Villafranca and Solferino. — Treaty of Zurich . . 61-77 



vi CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER Y. 

From Verona to Lake Garda. — European and American Lakes. — Mrs. Bassett's Anecdote. — 
Peschiera ; An Important Military Post. — Lemon Gardens of Lake Garda; How they 
are Protected in "Winter. — Hills Surrounding the Lake. — Towns and Villages. — Tre- 

MOSINE AND ITS POSITION. — By StEAMBOAT TO RiVA. — In AUSTRIA AGAIN. CONTRASTS OF 

War AND Peace. — Oppressiveness of Long Names. — Fall of the Ponale. — Moonlight 
Excursion on the Lake. — Beggary as an Industry. — The Fishes of Lake Garda. — Fred's 
Observations. — Down the Lake. — Old Friends. — Story-telling. — Incidents of Continental 
Stupidity. — Difficulties about Baggage. — Brescia, Lecco, and Lake Como . Pages 78-98 

CHAPTER VI. 

Lake Como ; Its Extent and Peculiarities ; Fred's Account of their Visit ; Palaces and 
Villas ; Mountains Surrounding the Lake. — Old Castles. — Lodging in a Palace. — 
Streets of Bellagio. — Villa Melzi and its Gardens. — Villa Serbelloni. — Fine View of 
the Lake. — Statuary and Paintings. — Villa Carlotta, and its History. — Excursion to 
CoLico. — A Rainy Day, and what Camh: of It. — Town of Como. — Pliny's Letter to his 
Friend. — Monza. — The Iron Crown. — A Nail of the True Cross. — Milan ; Short History 
OF the City. — Unpopularity of the Austrian Rule. — The Famous Cathedral. — How Mary 
WAS Deceived. — St. Charles Borromeo. — Roof and Tower of the Cathedral. — Milan as 
A Patron of Art. — "The Last Supper." — Leonardo da Vinci. — Invention of Oil-painting. 
— The Brothers Van Eyck. — The Brera and its Art Treasures 99-118 

CHAPTER YII. 

From Milan to Genoa. — Pavia and its Hundred Towers. — The Battle of Pavia. — Francis I. ; 
His Historic Words. — Passing Through the Apennines. — First View of Genoa ; Position 
OF the City; Its History and Importance. — "The Superb." — Genoa's Part in the Cru- 
sades. — Statue of Columbus ; Other Memorials of the Great Navigator ; Where was 
Columbus Born ? Mary's Description of the Statue. — The Municipal Palace, and what 
was Seen There. — Letters op Columbus. — Paganini's Violin; Anecdotes of the Great 
Musician. — An Excursion in the Harbor of Genoa. — Commercial Importance of Genoa. 
— Italian Steamships ; Peculiarities of theik Management. — Bank of St. George. — The 
Saint and the Dragon 119-140 

CHAPTER VHI. 

The Oldest Bank of Europe. — The Bank of Venice, and how it was Founded.— Importance 
OF the Bank of St. George ; Its Fortunes and Misfortunes ; Extent and Character of 
its Business. — John Law and the Mississippi Bubble. — A Bank with an Independent 
Government. — Islands and Provinces Held as Securities for Loans. — An Ancient Bank- 
note. — Among the Archives of the Bank. — The Holy Grail and its History. — The Pal- 
lavicini Gardens. — Underground Lake and Grotto. — Boat Excursion to Cogoleto. — 
Another Birthplace of Columbus. — Palazzo Doria. — Famous Families of Genoa. — Andrea 
Doria, and what he Did. — The Fieschi Conspiracy and its Result .... 141-159 

CHAPTER IX., 

Leaving Genoa. — Railway Along the Coast. — Spezia ; Its Harbor and Naval Station. — Mar- 
ble Quarries of Carrara; How the Marble is Taken Out. — Pisa; Its History and At- 
tractions. — The Cathedral, and what it Contains. — Galileo and the Swinging Lamp. — 
Leaning Tower of Pisa; Observations Concerning It. — The Baptistery; Its Bronze 
Doors and Other Ornaments. — Campo Santo. — How the Dead of Pisa Rest in Holy 
Ground. — Chains to Close the Harbor. — Lucca and its Industries. — The Baths of 
Lucca ; Their Antiquity. — Pistoja. — Origin of the Pistol. — Arrival at Florence. — The 



CONTENTS. vii 

City op Flowers. — Firenze La Bella. — A Fragment of History. — The Piazza Della 

SiGNORIA, AND WHAT IT CONTAINS. — LOGGIA DeI LaNZI. — ThE CaTHEDRAL AND THE CAMPA- 
NILE. — Giotto and his Work Pages 160-180 

CHAPTER X. 

Notes on Life in Florence ; Former Cost of Living There ; Present Prices ; Cause of the In- 
crease. — Visiting the Baptistery. — " The Gates of Paradise " and their History. — An Art 
Competition in the Fifteenth Century. — Generosity of Ghiberti's Chief Competitor. — How 
THE Bronze Doors were Made ; Description of the Famous Work. — The Uffizi Gallery. — 
The Tribune, and what it Contains. — Mrs. Bassett's Question. — The Medici Family, and 
what it Accomplished. — History of the Uffizi Palace. — Pitti Palace. — The Boboli Gar- 
dens. — Famous Sculptors of Florence. — Michael Angelo and his History ; The House 
where he Lived ; Mementos of the Great Sculptor ; Anecdotes about Him. — How a Design 
FOR A Tomb led to a Great Church. — Michael Angelo's Cane and Slippers. . . 181-197 

CHAPTER XL 

Savonarola ; Some Account of his Life and Character ; His Martyrdom ; The Cell where 
HE Lived ; His Influence with the Populace. — Americus Vespucius ; His House in Flor- 
ence ; How HE Obtained his Reputation; A Good Letter- writer. — Statue of Dante. — 
Church of Santa Croce. — The Illustrious Dead of Florence ; Tombs of Galileo, Michael 
Angelo, and Others. — Machiavelli, and how he has been Misrepresented. — Galileo and 
his Invention op the Telescope ; His Treatment by the Inquisition ; Last Days of his Life. 
— Milton's Visit to the Great Astronomer. — " It does move." — Vittorio Alfieri. — Church 
OF San Lorenzo. — The Medicean Chapel ; Purpose for which it was Built. — Florentine 
Mosaics; How they Differ from Roman Mosaics. — Costly Coffins and Tombs . 198-215 

CHAPTER Xn. 

The Environs op Florence. — San Miniato and its History. — The Villa of Galileo. — Italian 
Villas, and why they are Maintained. — Tyrannies of Fashion. — La Certosa and Fiesole. 
— An Ancient Rival op Florence, — The Golden Book and its Uses. — Excursion to Val- 
lombrosa. — The Monastery and its Origin ; What the Monks Accomplished. — Luxuriant 
Forests at Vallombrosa. — An Interesting Ride. — School of Agriculture. — Scenes along 
the Road. — Curious Legends. — Pelago. — Night in an Italian Inn. — Return to Florence.— 
The Gallery op Tapestries ; Specimens op Tapestries from Various Countries ; Introduc- 
tion op the Art into Italy. — Mary's Account op what they Saw .... 216-232 

CHAPTER XIH. 

Leaving Florence. — Empoll — The Valley of the Elsa. — A Picturesque Country. — Boccaccio's 
Birthplace. — The " Decameron." — Petrarch, and what he Wrote. — Ariosto, and his Great 
Poem. — Tasso. — "Jerusalem Delivered." — Tasso's Imprisonment. — Siena. — An Ancient 
City, and its History. — The Plague in Siena ; Notes on the Character and Origin of the 
Plague ; Its Devastations in Europe. — Monuments in the Cathedral of Siena. — Wonder- 
ful Mosaics. — Carved Pulpit by Pisano. — St. Catherine op Siena; The House where 
she Lived ; History of the Saint. — Guido Reni's Painting.— St. Catherine of Alexandria. 
—Wood-carving at Siena ; Antiquity op the Industry. — A Cheap Place of Residence. — 
The Baptistery. — Palazzo Pubblico. — Piazza Vittoria Emanuele. — Great Festival op 
Siena. — Horse-racing op a Peculiar Kind 233-254 

CHAPTER XIV. 

From Siena to Rome. — A Desolate Region. — Crossing the Dividing Range. — The Valley op 
the Tiber. — Orvieto. — The Miracle op Bolsena. — Cathedral of Orvieto. — Etruria and 



Vlii CONTENTS. 

THE Etruscans. — A Prehistoric Race. — Etruscan Remains, — Paintings on the Walls of 
Tombs. — Etruscan Sculptures. — Household Utensils, Ornaments, and Ways of Life. — War 
Between Romans and Etruscans. — Boats on the Tiber ; Length and Peculiarities of the 
River. — First Sight of Rome. — Thoughts of Mrs. Bassett and Mary. — The Corso. — 
Fountain of Trevi, and Legend Connected with It. — When was Rome Founded ? — A 
Drive Through the City. — Scraps of History Pages 255-274 

CHAPTER XV. 

The Colosseum ; Origin of its Name ; Date of its Construction ; Celebration of its Com- 
pletion. — Slaughter of Men and Beasts. — Measurements of the Great Structure. — The 
Podium and its Uses. — Accommodations for Spectators. — Arrangements of Seats and 
Entrances. — Awnings for Shelter against Sun and Rain. — The Arena. — Gladiatorial 
Combats, Contests with Wild Beasts, Sea-fights, etc. — Consecration of the Colosseum 
BY Pope Benedict XIV, — Mrs. Bassett's Question about Gladiators; Who and what 
THE Gladiators were ; Origin of their Name. — Human Sacrifices at Funerals ; How 
they became Popular Amusements. — First Gladiatorial Fights at Rome ; Abolition of 
THE Custom. — Arch of Constantine and its History. — Trajan's Arch. — Arch of Titus. — 
The Capitol and Forum. — Tarpeian Rock. — Excavations in the Forum . , . 275-291 

CHAPTER XVI. 

A Visit to the Ghetto, the Jews' Quarter, and how it Originated. — Persecutions op the 
Jews in Ancient and Modern Times ; Cruel Edicts against Them. — Destruction of Je- 
rusalem by Titus ; How the Jews op Rome were Compelled to Celebrate It. — Sights 
and Scenes in the Ghetto. — St. Peter's Church ; Its Extent, and Comparison with Other 
Great Churches, — Baptismal Font, Canopy, Mosaics, Monuments, etc, — Statues on the 
Roof, and a Story about Them. — An Art Competition. — A Boy's Ready Wit and its 
Result. — The Vatican and its Treasures. — Sistine Chapel. — "The Last Judgment." — 
Raphael's Loggie. — Famous Paintings in the Picture-gallery. — Collection of Statues. — 
Famous Sculptures. — Roman Antiquities. — Kitchen Utensils, and Other Things. — How 
THE Old Romans Lived. — The Pantheon, — Trajan's Column. — An Ambitious Ameri- 
can 292-311 

CHAPTER XVII. 

The Catacombs of Rome, and a Visit to Them. — Mementos op Early Christian Persecution. — 
■ Catacomb of St. Calixtus, — Passages and Rooms Underground, — Paintings on the 
Walls. — Burial Niches and Vaults, — From Rome to Naples. — Capua. — The Appian 
Way. — The Bay of Naples. — Extent and Beauty of the City ; Its History, — Castle of 
St, Elmo, and Views from its Walls. — Street Scenes of Naples. — Out-door Life. — Strada 
Santa Lucia and the Promontory. — Oyster Men and Frutti di Mare. — Lazzauoni, and 
THEIR History; How they Eat Macaroni. — A Free Lunch in the Street. — Perambu- 
lating Restaurants. — Street Letter-writers, and their Occupation. — Zampognari, — Ras- 
calities OF Boatmen and Carriage Drivers ; How to Meet Them. — A Driver's Philosophy, 
— Churches and the National Museum 312-330 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

Antiquities in the Museum. — Papyri from Herculaneum ; Process of Unrolling and Reading 
Them. — Receipts of a Pompeian Banker. — Bread Baked Eighteen Hundred Years Ago. — 
The Villa Nazionale. — Grotto of Pozzuoli. — The Old Tunnel and the New. — Ancient 
System of Tunnelling. — The Royal Palace. — San Carlo Theatre. — Operatic Perform- 
ances. — How Two Americans Secured Silence. — Minor Theatres of Naples. — Burlesque, 
— PuLCiNELLo. — Markets of Naples. — Donkeys and their Work. — How Macaroni is Made ; 
Visiting a Macaroni Factory, — An Amusing Incident, — Environs of Naples. — Pozzuon 



CONTENTS. IX 

AND Baja. — Lake Avernus, Sibyl's Gate, Nero's Prison, Nero's Amphitheatre, etc. — 
The Guide's Trick. — Temple of Serapis.— Solfatara Pages 331-349 

CHAPTER XIX. 

Mount Vesuvius, Pompeii, and Herculaneum. — Visit to the Ruins of Herculaneum. — A City 
UNDER A City. — The Theatre and Other Buildings Excavated. — Vesuvius and its Erup- 
tions. — Ascending the Volcano. — Wire-rope Railway. — Old Methods Contrasted with 
the Present. — At the Edge of the Crater. — Cooking an Egg by Volcanic Heat. — A 
Warm Promenade. — A Rapid Descent. — Pompeii ; Its History and Destruction ; How its 
Location was Discovered. — Description of Streets and Houses. — Fountains at Street 
Corners. — Election Placards. — Signs op Tradesmen. — Shops in Pompeii. — Construction of 
Dwellings and the way the People Lived 350-367 

CHAPTER XX. 

Houses of Rich and Poor. — Description op a Rich Man's Dwelling. — The House of Pansa 
AND ITS Ornaments. — A Glass Window; Other Uses of Glass. — "Salve!" — An Ameri- 
ican's Mistake. — Custom-house. — House of the Surgeons. — Medical and Surgical Instru- 
ments. — The Street of Tombs. — The Roman Sentinel and his Story. — Diomede's House; 
Skeletons in his Cellar. — How Casts of Bodies are Made. — An Official's Ingenuity. — 
Wah^ Paintings; Description of some of Them. — House of the Tragic Poet. — "Beware 
of the Dog." — Island of Capri, and a Visit to it. — Tiberius and his Palace. — A Cheap 
Place to Live. — Capri and Anacapri. — The Blue Grotto. — A Curious Sight. — Tricks of 
THE Boatmen. — Other Grottos. — Coral Fishing. — Women of Capri and their Occupa- 
tions 368-383 

CHAPTER XXI. 

Ischia. — The Great Earthquake of 1883. — Sights of Ischia. — Ascending the Epomeo. — A 
Prosperous Hermit. — Sorrento. — The Italian Navy. — Modern Iron-clads. — The Italia 
AND HER Great Guns. — Ships and Men in the Navy. — The Italian Army ; Its Composition 
AND Character. — Bersaglieri. — Alpine Troops and African Corps. — Enormous Strength 
of Military Forces. — System of Recruiting. — Arms and Equipment of the Soldier ; His 
Burden when on the March. — Shopping Inventory in Naples. — Departure for Malta. — 
Stromboli and its Peculiarities. — Messina and its Great Earthquake. — Catania. — The 
Ascent of Mount JEtna. — Syracuse. — Fountain of Arethusa and Tradition Concerning 
it. — The Ear of Dionysius and its Acoustic Properties 384-406 

CHAPTER XXII. 

Arrival at Malta ; First View of the Island. — The Gi!and Harbor. — Diving for Coins. — No 
SUCH City as Malta. — On Shore. — Valletta and its History. — Meeting a Friend. — Early 
Inhabitants of Malta. — The Knights of St. John ; What they did and how they Lived ; 
History of the Order. — The French in Possession. — Houses Built by the Knights. — The 
"Languages" and their Palaces. — Church of St. John; Its Pavement and Memorials. — 
Matthias Pretl — The Grand Master's Palace. — Commerce of Malta. — Streets of Stairs. 
— Strada Reale, and the Sights it Presents. — Government of Malta ; No Taxes upon the 
Inhabitants. — A Free Port with Import Duties. — Maltese Peddlers. — Driving Sharp 
Bargains. — Fort St. Elmo. — Historical Incidents. — The Chapel of the Knights ; Hoav 
they took their Last Sacrament. — A Dense Population 407-424 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

How the Maltese Live. — High Walls around Fields and Gardens. — Fertility of the Soil, 
AND ITS Products. — The Water Supply. — Manner of Holding Real Estate. — Perpetual 



X CONTENTS. 

AND Long-term Leases. — Modes op Agriculture. — Maltese Animals. — Export of Cats. — 
Industries of Malta. — Filigree Work in Gold and Silver. — Maltese Cotton Goods. — 
In a Private Residence. — Mary's Account of the Malta Railway. — An Accomplished 
Conductor. — How the Trains are Run. — The People and their Language. — An Inland 
Excursion. — Citta Vecchia and Cathedral op St. Paul. — House where the Apostle 
Lived. — Catacombs. — Place where St. Paul was Wrecked. — Island op Gozo. — Roman 
Ruins. — Gay Life of Fashionable Malta. — Frank and Fred in the Union Club. — 
Departure from Malta. — The Riviera and the Cornice Road. — Scenes along the 
Route Pages 425-442 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

On the Riviera. — San Remo. — Ruined Towers and their History. — Story of the Palm-trees. — 
Bordighera. — Custom-house at Ventimiglia. — How the Examination was Conducted. — 
Mentone ; Its Hotels. — How Mentone was " Discovered ;" Its Climate and Attractions ; 
What Mary Wrote about the Place. — Hotels with all Rooms Outside. — Gardens op 
Mentone. — How the Riviera Obtains its Climate. — Scenes in Old Mentone. — Rules about 
Driving in the Streets. — Domestic Interiors. — Antiquity of Mentone. — A Revolution, 
AND WHAT Caused it. — A Despotic Prince; How he Levied Taxes. — The Bone Caverns 
and their Former Occupants. — Scenes in the Neighborhood. — Laundresses and their way 
op Working. — Olive Groves and Oil-mills 443-463 

CHAPTER XXV. 

The Legend op the Lemon ; How Eve brought it from Paradise. — Lemon Industry at Men- 
tone. — Visit to Church and Monastery of the Annunziata. — Capuchin Monks. — St. Fran- 
cis, AND THE Order he Founded. — Algerine Slavery. — Mentone Sailors Captured by 
Corsairs. — Votive Offerings in Church of the Annunziata. — Village of Sant'Agnese. — 
A Fete Day. — Procession of Villagers. — Church and Chapel. — How the Festivities 
were Conducted. — A Saracen Fort. — The Accommodating Guide. — View from Sant'Ag- 
nese. — Monte Carlo and Monaco. — The Smallest Monarchy in Europe. — How the Prince 
of Monaco Lives. — Old Town of Monaco and its Castle. — The Grimaldi Family. — The 
Assassination Record. — A Famous Fireplace. — Tower of Turbia 464-481 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

Entering the Casino. — Rules Regarding Admission. — Reading-room. — The Gaming-tables. 

— Roulette, and the Mode of Playing it. — The Croupier and his Duties. — How the 
Croupiers are Watched. — The Crowd at the Tables. — How the Spectators and 
Players Behave. — The Mysterious " Direction." — Why the Profits are Enormous. 

— Fascination of Gambling at Monaco. — How Victims are Sent away. — Suicides. 

— Players with "Systems." — The Failure of "Certainties." — How a Croupier Robbed 
THE Bank. — Snuffbox and Wax. — From Mentone to Nice. — Message from Doctor 
Bronson. — Sudden Departure for Spain. — Barcelona. — A Prosperous City. — Valencia 
AND ITS Attractions. — Mary's Story of the Cid. — A Great Fruit-garden. — System of 
Irrigation 482-502 

CHAPTER XXVII. 

Alicante and Almeria. — Out-door Barbers. — Hair-cutting for Man and Beast. — Cigarette- 
smoking Universal. — Donkeys and their Riders. — Cheap Fruits. — Street Peddlers. — 
Garlic Merchants. — Malaga. — A Telegram from Doctor Bronson. — General View of 
Malaga ; Its Commerce and Industries. — A Land op Moderation. — By Railway to Cor- 
dova. — The Mezquita ; Its History and Peculiarities. — Beauties of the Mosque. — Court 
OF Oranges.— Inscription made by a Prisoner. — The Mihrab. — Cordovan Wares. — From 
Cordova to Seville. — Moorish Buildings. — Interesting Architecture. — Grated Windows 



CONTENTS. xi 

AND THEIR USES. — ThE GiRALDA, AND ViEW FROM ITS ToP. ThE GrEAT CaTHEDRAL. BeGGARS 

AND THEIR Wats Pciges 503-521 

CHAPTER XXYIII. 

The Alcazar. — Pedro the Cruel, and how he Obtained his Name. — Murdering his Guests. — 
Garden of the Alcazar.— Concealed Fountains. — Palace of the Duke of Montpensier. — 
Fine Collection of Paintings. — Plaza de Toros. — Market of Seville. — Streets Shaded 
FROM THE Sun. — Sights and Scenes in the Market. — Calentitos. — Subjects for the Work 
of Artists. — Spanish Politeness. — Some Kules of Castilian Etiquette. — An Old Shopping 
Custom. — Italica and Roman Remains There. — A Surprise. — Voyage on a Yacht, — Down 
THE Guadalquivir. — Cadiz. — Trafalgar. — Lord Nelson and the Great Battle. — Gibral- 
tar. — Sights on the Rock. — The Galleries. — Signal - station. — Gibraltar Apes. — Europa 
Point.— The End 522-544 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Vesuvius. — The Rock of Gibraltar Frontispiece 



A Gondola 

A Palace on the Grand Canal. 

An Afternoon Call 

Map of Venice 

A Bit of Venice 



PAGE 

1 

2 

... 3 

5 

6 

A Group of Venetian Boats Y 

The Rialto 8 

Museum of Antiquities. — Italian Majolica of 

the Sixteenth Century 9 

Venetian Chair 10 

A Freight Boat 11 

Specimen of Mosaic Work 13 

Ground-plan of St. Mark's Square 14 

The Horses of St. Mark 15 

In a Small Canal , 17 

Plan of St. Mark's Church 19 

Porta Delia Carta, St. Mark's Church 21 

Byzantine Enamel in the Library of St. 

Mark's 22 

Lion of St. Mark's and Landing-place 23 

View of Venice from the Water 25 

Carrier-pigeons with Letters 26 

A Balcony Scene 27 

The Bridge of Sighs. . 28 

Lion of St. Mark and Palace of the Doges. . 29 

Moonlight on the Water 31 

Andrea Gritti, Doge of Venice 32 

A Venetian Market-boat 33 

Titian's House in Venice 35 

In the Harbor of Venice. Campanile, St. 
Mark's, and Doges' Palace in the Back- 
ground 37 

A Sandolo 39 

Venetian Sails 40 

Galley of the Seventeenth Century 41 

The Bucintoro 43 

Venetian Fishing-boats 45 

Murano Cup of the Sixteenth Century 46 

Cups in Multicolored Glass 47 

Bottle and Goblet 48 

Fancy Glasses with Colored Handles 49 

At the Public Well — Morning Scene in 

Venice 51 



PAGE 

Italian Coat of Arms 52 

Martyrdom of St. George. — Fresco in the 

Church of St. Anthony of Padua 53 

Francesco Crispi, Minister of the Interior. . . 54 

Agostino Depretis, Minister of War 54 

St. Anthony of Padua — From the Painting 

by Murillo 55 

Count Cavour 56 

Court of the Town-hall, Verona 57 

Verona from Ponte Nuove 59 

Statue of Dante 61 

A Street in Verona 62 

Dante 63 

Tomb of Can Signorio 65 

Tomb of Can Mastino II 67 

Statue of Can Grande 68 

The Arena.. 69 

Juliet's Tomb 70 

The Piazza dell'Erbe 73 

Door of the Cathedral 75 

Church of San Zeno 77 

Fireplace in an Italian Inn 78 

Fresco on the Outside of an Italian House. . 79 

Lemon Gardens, Lake Garda 81 

Tremosine, by Lake Garda 83 

View of Limone 85 

Riva, from the Ponale Road 87 

Village Scene . 88 

Italian Guides 89 

A Marriage Festival 91 

" Christ Mocked " 93 

Interior of a Rich Man's House , 95 

King David Sees a Vision of the Messiah.. . 97 

Lecco 99 

San Giovanni (Bellagio), on Lake Como. . . . 100 

A Street in Bellagio 101 

Villa Serbelloni 103 

Pulpit in an Ancient Church 104 

The Iron Crown 105 

Interior of Church of St. Ambrogio, Milan. . 107 

Relief upon the Pulpit of an Ancient Church, 109 

Madonna Delia Cintola Ill 

St. Barbara 113 



XIV 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PAGE 

"The Last Supper" 115 

Hubert and Jan Van Eyck 117 

"Adoration of the Lamb " 118 

Francis 1 119 

View of Genoa, from the Heights Above the 

City 121 

Christopher Columbus 123 

Monument to Cokimbus, Genoa 124 

Reputed Birthplace of Columbus 125 

Coat of Arms of Columbus 126 

A Genoese Wool-comber 127 

Autograph Letter of Columbus to the Bank 

of St. George, Genoa 128 

Paganini's Violin 129 

Bust, Autograph Letters, and Portfolio of 

Columbus 130 

Nicolo Paganini 131 

Genoese Vessels of the Fifteenth Century, , 133 

Ancient Seal of Genoa 135 

On a Side Street in Genoa 137 

Italian Sofa and Tapestry of the Sixteenth 

Century 138 

Draco Volans^ or Flying-dragon 139 

The Campo Santo, Genoa 140 

Seal of St. George 141 

Part of the Fa9ade of the Bank 142 

Bank-bill of 1522 143 

Archives of the Bank of St. George 145 

St. George's Ballot-boxes 146 

View in the Pallavicini Gardens 147 

The Holy Grail 149 

Cogoleto 151 

Andrea Doria 153 

The Sword of Doria 155 

Gianluigi Fieschi 157 

Forming the Conspiracy 158 

Death of Fieschi 159 

Part of Door of the Cathedral, Pisa 160 

A Marble Quarry 161 

Plan of the Cathedral of Pisa 163 

Longitudinal Section of the Cathedral 164 

Southern Side of the Cathedral 165 

Galileo 166 

Relief upon the Pulpit in the Baptistery. . . 167 

Italian Oak Pedestal 169 

Roman Remains 171 

The Centre of Florence 172 

View on the Arno 173 

Piazza Delia Signoria 175 

Plan of the Cathedral 176 

Loggia Dei Lanzi 177 

Giotto 178 

Relief upon the Campanile of Florence 179 

Italian Sofa of the Sixteenth Century 180 

Tomb of Giuliano de' Medici 181 



PAGE 

Picture from Organ Screen in the Cathedral. 182 

Michael Angelo 183 

Christ of the Tribute Money 184 

One of the Gates of Ghiberti. . 185 

Madonna and Angels, Uffizi Gallery 187 

The Tribune, Uffizi Gallery 189 

Lorenzo de' Medici 192 

Ponte Vecchio 193 

Virgin and Child 195 

Head of Angel 196 

Michael Angelo's Study 197 

Americus Vespucius 198 

Savonarola 1 99 

Savonarola's Cell 201 

Martyrdom of Savonarola 202 

Dante's Monument 203 

Tomb of Galileo 205 

Tomb of Michael Angelo 206 

Vittorio Alfieri 207 

Architectural Ornament 210 

Lantern, Palazzo Strozzi 211 

Torch-holder for External Illuminations, ... 212 

Mosaic of the Three Kings 213 

Ancient Mosaic, Ravenna 214 

A Table of the Medici Family 215 

Among the Hills 216 

Old Buildings in the Valley of the Arno. . . 218 

A Village Street near Florence 219 

Convent of Vallombrosa 220 

Pelago 222 

Frescos Executed under the Direction of 

Raphael 224 

Tapestry of the Fourteenth Century 226 

Christ Washing the Apostles' Feet 229 

A Home Interior of the Seventeenth Century. 231 

The Fall of Phaethon .'. 232 

Ludovico Ariosto 233 

Dante at Ravenna 234 

Francesco Petrarch 235 

Coronation of Petrarch 237 

Ariosto's Inkstand 238 

Ariosto's Chair 239 

Torquato Tasso 240 

Tasso in Prison 241 

Tasso at the Court of Ferrara\ 243 

Palazzo Pubblico, Siena 244 

Column at the Entrance of the Cathedral. . 246 

Holy-water Vase, with Pagan Pedestal 247 

Mosaic Border on the Floor of the Cathedral. 248 

Marble Pulpit 249 

Panel in Principal Door of the Cathedral. . . 250 

Facade of the Baptistery 251 

Sienese Peasant Woman 253 

Sienese Peasant Girl in Holiday Dress 254 

An Etruscan Gateway 255 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



XV 



PAGE 

An Etruscan Archway 256 

Cathedral of Orvieto 257 

Interior of an Etruscan Tomb 259 

Etruscan Sarcophagus of Terra-cotta 260 

Etruscan ReUef 261 

Wall Painting from Etruria 263 

Entrance to a Tomb 264 

An Etruscan Wall 265 

The Island of the Tiber, Rome 266 

Roman Soldiers 267 

Italian Children at Play 269 

An Italian Boy and his Pets 270 

Walls of Rome— The Ostian Gate 272 

Emperor Justinian 273 

Ancient Roman Monument 274 

The Arch of Constantine 275 

Plan of the Colosseum 276 

Section of the Auditorium of the Colosseum. 277 

The Colosseum, from, the Palatine Hill 279 

The Arch of Titus. . 281 

Arch of Titus — Triumphal Car and Proces- 
sion 283 

Temple of Vespasian 285 

Septimius Severus 286 

Columns of Temple in the Roman Forum. . , 287 

Tarpeian Rock 289 

Arch of Septimius Severus 291 

Roman Coin with Head of Janus 292 

Map of Ancient Rome 293 

Slab from Arch of Titus, Showing Spoils 

from Jerusalem 294 

A Jewish Rabbi 295 

Church of St. Cecilia in Rome 297 

The Transfiguration 299 

Plan of the Original Church of St. Peter. . . 300 
Statue of St. Peter in St. Peter's Church. . . 301 
Mosaic, Showing Entry of Christ into Jeru- 
salem 303 

The Assumption of the Virgin 304 

Ancient Knocker 305 

Statue of Augustus — Vatican Collection. . . . 306 

Bells of Ancient Rome 307 

Section of the Pantheon 309 

Trajan's Column 310 

Monumental Urn 311 

Plan of the Catacomb of St. Calixtus 312 

Papal Vault in the Catacomb 313 

Crypt in the Catacomb of Calixtus 314 

Decorated Crypt, Catacomb of Calixtus. . . . 316 

View on the Appian Way 317 

Antique Bust, Museum of Capua 318 

View of Naples from Posilippo 319 

Santa Lucia and Castello Dell'ovo 321 

The Oysterman 322 

Zampognari Playing before a Shrine 323 



I PAGE 

The Public Scribe 324 

Zampognari in tiie Street 325 

The National Museum 328 

Statue of Isis 329 

Head of the Hermes of Praxiteles 330 

Candelabra and Vase from Pompeii 331 

The Villa Nazionale 332 

Entrance of the Grotto of Posilippo 333 

Staircase in the Royal Palace 335 

Scene from " Punch and Judy " 337 

Pulcinello 338 

Making Macaroni 340 

" Waiting for Macaroni "... 342 

The Leader of the Flock 343 

Temple of Fortuna Virilis 345 

Coin of Emperor Nero 346 

Ancient Arch 348 

Chief Hall of Ancient Roman Baths 349 

Wall Painting from Herculaneum 350 

Roman War-chariot 352 

View of Vesuvius, with Naples in the Fore- 
ground 353 

Eruption of Vesuvius in 1737 354 

Portable Fireplace, Herculaneum 356 

Landscape Painting from Pompeii 357 

Ceres 359 

Wall Painting, Pompeii 361 

Achilles Delivering up Briseis, Pompeii. . . . 862 

Lamp and Stand 363 

Summer Night in Pompeii 365 

Gold Pin 366 

Ring 366 

Picture in the House of Pansa 368 

Atrium in the House of Pansa 369 

A Supper-party 370 

" Beware of the dog !" 372 

View of Vesuvius from Capri 873 

Marina Grande 375 

Light-house of Tiberius 376 

Fisher People of Capri 377 

View in the Island 379 

The Blue Grotto 381 

Natural Arch 383 

Italian Ship of the Sixteenth Century 384 

The Amerigo Vespucci 385 

A Wayside Monument 386 

Sorrento 387 

Road near Sorrento 389 

Deck-plan of the Italia 390 

Section of the Italia 390 

The Italia 391 

King Humbert as General of the Army. . . . 393 

Bersaglieri 395 

Alpine Infantry 397 

Stromboli 399 



XVI 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PAGK 

Catania and Mount ^tna 401 

Syracuse 403 

Papyrus Plants 404 

Restored View of Greek Theatre at Syracuse. 405 
Mountains of Sicily, with Ruined Temple. . . 406 

A Street of Stairs 407 

Diving for Coins 408 

Valletta, Capital of Malta 409 

The Harbor at Rhodes 411 

Effigy of a Knight 413 

Off to Palestine 415 

In the Days of Chivalry 417 

The Church of St. John 419 

Going to Mass 420 

Governor's Palace 421 

Grand Harbor, Malta 423 

A Specimen of Lace 424 

A Young Native 425 

View in Villa Zammit 427 

Citta Vecchia, or Xotabile 429 

Road to Citta Vecchia 431 

Roman Pavement Recently Uncovered in 

Gozo 433 

A Mediterranean Boat 435 

St. Paul's Bay, Island of Malta 436 

Malta and Comino, from Gozo 437 

View on the Cornice Road 439 

Pont St. Louis, Cornice Road 441 

Street in Rocca Bruna 443 

The Palms of Bordighera 445 

Feudal Tower near Ventimiglia 447 

The Old Town, Mentone 448 

A Street in the Old Town 449 

Scene on the Riviera 451 

Old Olive-tree near Mentone 452 

Remains of Roman Architecture 453 

The Bone Caverns. 455 

Section of a Cave-dwelling in the Stone Age. 456 
Flint Implements Found in a Cave-dwelling. 457 

Mentone Laundresses 459 

Dolce Acqua, near Mentone 461 

OiKmiU 462 

Roman Remains 464 

Bringing Lemons from the Gardens 465 

The Monasterv of the Annunziata 466 



PAGE 

Capuchin Monks 468 

The Vow of Poverty 470 

Fete at Sant'Agnese 472 

Going to Sant'Agnese 473 

View from Sant'Agnese 474 

Pifferari 476 

Monaco 478 

Entrance to the Palace, Monaco 481 

" Make your game, gentlemen " 482 

Diagram of Roulette-table 483 

Monaco — The Palace and Port 485 

Fireplace in the Salle Grimaldi 487 

" Please don't die here " 488 

Spanish Fishermen 490 

Garden Irrigation near Valencia 492 

Spanish Fruit-sellers 494 

Church of Santa Catalina, Valencia.. . .... 496 

Going to the Bull-fight, Madrid 499 

A Valencia Cab 500 

Spanish Street Scene 501 

Court-yard of a Spanish Inn 502 

A Spanish Singing-girl 503 

Street Barbers, for Man and Beast 505 

At Full Speed 506 

Garlic Vender 507 

The Mezquita 509 

On the Road near Cordova 511 

Spanish Gypsies 512 

A Water-carrier 515 

A Street Corner, Seville 517 

The Giralda Tower 519 

Main Entrance to the Cathedral, Seville 520 

Coster-mongers of Seville 522 

The Garden of the Alcazar 523 

Priest and Purveyor 525 

A AVater-stand 527 

Quenching Thirst 529 

"Tlie Barber of Seville" 531 

A Street in Seville 533 

The Moorish Gate, Seville 535 

Spanish Jars 537 

Lord Xelson 539 

Gibraltar 540 

The Summit of the Rock 542 

Street Scene in Gibraltar./ 544 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS 



IN 



SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



CHAPTER I. 



VENICE; "THE CITY OF THE SEA." — MRS. BASSETT AND THE GONDOLA; THE 
CABS OF VENICE.— A QUOTATION FROM BYRON.— ALONG THE GRAND CANAL.— 
SCRAPS OF HISTORY —A STREET OF PALACES.— A PALATIAL INTERIOR.— CON- 
STRUCTION OF THE HOUSES.— MOSAIC FLOORS, AND HOW THEY WERE MADE- 
FOUNDING OF VENICE.— THE RIALTO AND ITS HISTORY.— STREETS AND CANALS. 
—MRS. BASSETT'S PERPLEXITY.— MARY'S QUERY.— SHOPPING AND CALLING BY 
WATER.— THE PIAZZA SAN MARCO.— PROCURAZIE, AND THEIR ORIGIN.— VENE- 
TIAN SOUVENIRS.— CHURCH OF ST. MARK. 



^ 



A 



p. -. j.„ 




■'■i^''"r'"T-rf:^r-.;,^^ 



A GONDOLA. 



"HPHEEE it is," said 
J- Mary, as she point- 
ed from one of the win- 
dows of the railway train. 

"There is what?" her 
mother promptly queried. 

"Why, Yenice. It's 
Venice, I'm sure," was the 
Yivacious reply. , 

" You're right," said Frank ; " that is the ' City of the Sea.' Ob- 
serve the tower that rises above the other buildings ?" 

" Yes," answered Mary. " I know what that is. It is the tower of 
St. Mark, is it not ? Certainly it looks like it." 

" You have guessed its name correctly," said Frank, " and we will 
learn more about it after we reach the city." 



2 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

The railway train on which they were traveUing had been for some 
time winding along the shore of the Adriatic. Mrs. Bassett remarked 
that she expected they would go to Yenice in a boat of some kind, but 
Frank put her mind at rest on this point by assuring her that the train 




A PALACE ON THE GRAND CANAL, 



would take them directly into the city. As they looked from the window 
of the railway carriage, Mary called attention to a long bridge built on 
arches, and extending from the main-land to the nearest portion of the 
city. After a time the train turned from its course by the shore and 
made its way along this bridge. Every moment the walls of the city 
became more and more distinct. As our friends gazed upon the build- 
ings that rose from the water, they all realized the correctness of the 
appellation—" The City of the Sea." Hardly any ground was visible, 
the view including little else than the water and the buildings rising 
from it. Venerable buildings they were, and told that the city was by 
no means a new creation of the present centur3\ 

The train came to a halt at the railway station. As usual, in the 



ARRIVAL IN VENICE. 3 

principal stations on the Continent, there was an abundance of porters 
to take charge of the light baggage of the travellers. Frank indicated 
to one of the porters the name of the hotel where they intended stop- 
ping, and immediately a commissionnaire from that establishment made 
his appearance. He led the way, not to a carriage, according to the usual 
custom in other parts of the world, but to a boat which was at the 
landing-place just outside the station. 

" Are we to go to the hotel in a boat ?" queried Mrs. Bassett. 

"Certainly," replied Frank. "There is not a wheeled carriage in 
all Yenice ; these boats that you see here are the carriages of the city. 




AN AFTERNOON CALL, 



Some of them are like cabs, and can be hired in the same way, and they 
have a printed tariff of fares exactly like the tariff of cab fares in other 
places. That large boat," said he, pointing to a craft of more than or- 
dinary size, and with several rows of seats, " is an omnibus. It has a 



4 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

regular route of travel, and the price of passage is very much the same 
as that of an omnibus in Paris, London, or New York." 

" That's what you call a gondola, I suppose," Mrs. Bassett just then 
remarked, as she looked at the boat. 

" Gondola,^' replied Frank, " is the general name for the boats of 
Venice ; ordinarily the term is applied only to the small craft — long 
narrow boats, each propelled by one or two men." 

" Oh, I understand all about that," said Mrs. Bassett ; " but there 
must have been some great calamity in the city, and they have gone 
into mourning, as every one of the boats is painted black. I wonder 
what terrible thing has happened." 

" Oh, I can explain that," said Mary. " There is an old law of Yenice, 
which was established — I don't know when — requiring the gondolas to 
be painted in this way. The people spent so much money on the dec- 
oration of their boats, just as people in other parts of the world used to 
spend mone}'^ on their carriages, that it was considered necessary to re- 
strict them. Consequently, the law was made to prevent this extrav- 
agance of decoration, and also to secure uniformity of style. You 
will also observe — " 

" Never mind what you observe," said Frank ; " Ave'll hear the rest 
of your story later. Just step into the boat, and as soon as we are 
seated, and gliding along the canal, you may give us the result of your 
observation among Venetian boats." 

The reader will no doubt readily understand where this conver- 
sation took place. Our friends, whose acquaintance some of us have 
made heretofore, had come from Budapest by railway to Venice. 
Many of our readers are doubtless familiar with their previous wan- 
derings in various parts of the world. ^ 

As soon as they were seated in the boat, Frank turned to Mary and 
asked what she was about to say when interrupted. 

" Oh, nothing of great consequence," she replied. " You know we 
have referred to Byron several times for descriptions of scenery and 
other matters. While we were in the train I chanced upon a picture 
that he makes of a gondola, and was about to give it to you." 



* The Boy Travellers in the Far East (five volumes), and The Boy Travellers in South 
America, The Boy Travellers in the Russian Empire, The Boy Travellers on the Congo, fhe 
Boy Travellers in Australasia, The Boy Travellers in Mexico (five volumes), The Boy Trav- 
ellers in Great Britain and Ireland, The Boy Travellers in Northern Europe, and The Boy 
Travellers in Central Europe. See complete list at the end of this book. 



» 


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5 





A BIT OF VENICE. 



"Yery well," said Frank, "we will listen." 
peated the following poetical description : 



Whereupon Mary re- 



' Didst ever see a gondola? For fear 

You should not, I'll describe it you exactlj^: 
'Tis a long covered boat that's common here, 

Carved at the prow, built lightly, but compactly, 
Rowed by two rowers, each called gondolier ; 

It glides along the water, looking blackly, 
Just like a coffin clapped in a canoe. 

Where none can make out what they say or do. 



' And up and down the long canals they go. 

And under the Rialto shoot along. 
By night and day, all paces, swift or slow ; 

And around the theatres, a sable throng, 
They wait in their dusk livery of woe ; 

But not to them do woful things belong, 
For sometimes they contain a deal of fun, 

Like mourning-coaches when the funeral's done. 



8 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



"A very good description," said Mrs. Bassett, as Mary paused ; " and 
what a delightful vehicle the gondola is ! It has none of the rattle and 
jar of the carriage, and I don't wonder that people are charmed with 
Venice if for nothing else than its gondolas." 

The hotel which our friends had selected was on the Grand Canal, to 
Avhich the boat on which they had embarked speedily made its way. 
In every respect the scene along the canal was an interesting one. 
Palace after palace came into view, and there are said to be more than 
a hundred palaces in all. There were great numbers of gondolas and 
other boats, some going in the same direction as our friends, others pro- 
ceeding in the opposite direction, and others again tied up at the bank. 
Mrs. Bassett observed that some of the boats were fastened to posts 
rising from the water, or to rings set in the perpendicular walls that 
line the canal. All the boats were of the same solemn black which had 
given her the impression already mentioned, that Venice had gone into 




THE RIALTO. 



mourning on account of some great calamity. Here and there were 
small steamboats, a recent innovation in Venice, and they led Mary to 
question the correctness of Frank's assertion as they left the station 
that there were no wheeled carriages in Venice. 

" Those boats can certainly be called carriages," said she ; " and they 
have Avheels, therefore they must be wheeled carriages." She quoted 
the definition in AVebster's Dictionary, that a carriage is "that which 
carries or conveys," and, therefore, she sustained her contention on the 



LODGED IN A PALACE. 



subject. Frank evaded the question by saying they had no time for 

its discussion just then, as there was too much to look at on their route. 

Mrs. Bassett wondered if they would have an opportunity to visit 




MUSEUM OF ANTIQUITIES. — ITALIAN MAJOLICA OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 



any of the palaces along the Grand Canal. Frank replied that they 
would have abundant opportunities, which would begin at the hotel 
where they were to stop. " The hotel," said he, " is an old palace, and 
has been changed very little to adapt it to its present use. Very few 
of the palaces are now occupied as private residences, and fewer still 
belong to the families that originally constructed and owned them. 
I^early all the celebrated families of past centuries have died out, or 
those of their descendants who still exist are to-day in very ordinary 
circumstances. Most of the palaces have been converted into hotels, 
shops, offices, or warehouses, or appropriated to other uses of this prac- 
tical time — near the end of the nineteenth century." 

" Yes," said Mary, " there is one that is evidently a museum," and 



10 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



she pointed to a sign on the front of a palace on the left bank, which 
indicated that it was a museum of antiquities. 

" You will see several of these establishments before we get to the 
end of our journey," Frank replied. '^ The Museums of Antiquities in 
Venice are not exactly like the museums of London, Paris, or ISTew York. 
They are simply collections of antique furniture, books, bric-a-brac, and 
curiosities in general, which are for sale to any one who will pay a price 
satisfactory to the dealer. When we hire a guide to show us about the 
city, he will be pretty sure to endeavor to direct our steps into one 
of these museums, as he is supposed to receive a commission on the 
amount of our purchases, and not a small one by any means." 

Mrs. Bassett asked how long it Avas since Venice was settled, and 
how old these palaces were. Thereupon Frank turned to Mary, and 
asked if she had investigated its history. 

" Yes," the girl answered ; '^ I know something about it." 
" Well, then, let us hear what it is." 

" Venice is not as old as Rome and Athens," said Mary. " In fact, if 

Ave compare it Avith those cities, Ave shall 
find that it is quite modern, although it 
Avas founded a thousand years before 
Columbus discovered America. One his- 
torian remarks that it is interesting to re- 
member that Venice originated in an ex- 
pedient of desperation, and became great 
by accident of its position. The city Avas 
founded about the middle of the fifth cen- 
tury ; its founders being people Avho had 
been driven from north-eastern Italy by 
the depredations and ravages of that fa- 
mous Avarrior Attila, Avho called himself 
* The Scourge of God.' Most of the col- 
onists Avere from Padua ; and after leav- 
ing that city, and moving about several 
times, they determined to settle upon 
some islands near the Avest shore of the 
Adriatic, Avhere they Avould be compara- 
tively safe from intrusion. Fred can tell 
you more about the islands on which the 
city stands than I can. We Avere talking about it this morning, and I 
will refer you to him for a detailed description." 




VENETIAN (;irAIR. 



THE FOUNDING OF VENICE. 



11 



Up to this time Fred had taken little part in the conversation, but 
he promptly came to the relief of his fair cousin with the following : 

" There is a shallow bay called the Lagune (lagoon) between those 
islands and the shore, and the colonists thought that this bay would be 
an excellent protection to them 

against invaders; so they de- p 

cided to form their settlement 
on a cluster of three large isl- 
ands and a great many smaller 
ones, the nearest of them a lit- 
tle less than three miles from 
land. They settled upon the 
largest of the islands, and as 
the city grew and prospered 
their settlement extended over 
the smaller ones. The security 
of the position of Venice at- 
tracted other colonists, so that 
the population increased rapidly. 
The city may be said to have 
flourished through the misfort- 
unes of others, as every war in 
any part of Italy, and especially 
in the north, was pretty certain 
to add to the number of those 
who fled to Venice for safety." 

As they passed under the 
bridge of the Kialto, Fred re- 
marked that it took its name 
from the island of Kialto, the 
largest of the three upon which 
the city was founded. There- 
upon Mrs. Bassett looked very 
carefully at the bridge as they 

passed beneath its arch, and remarked that it was a very small bridge 
compared to the one which unites New York and Brooklyn. 

" But it was a great bridge at the time it was built," Fred replied. 
" It has been standing more than three hundred years, and consists of 
a single marble arch thirty-two feet high and seventy-four feet span. 
History tells us that more than twelve thousand wooden piles were 




A FREIGHT BOAT, 



12 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

driven into the sand to make a firm foundation for the bridge. From 
the time it was completed down to 1854 it was the only bridge crossing 
the Grand Canal and connecting the east and west quarters of Venice. 
We will come here again very soon, and look at the bridge from above 
instead of from below, as we now see it." 

" I knew the Kialto was very old," said Mary, " because it is referred 
to by Shakespeare in his play ' The Merchant of Venice.' " 

"Yes," replied Fred; "but there is some doubt as to whether Shake- 
speare referred to the bridge or to the island. The bridge was com- 
pleted in 1591 ; Shakespeare was twenty-seven years old at that time, 
and it is quite possible that the fame of the bridge as a great piece of 
architecture may have reached him ; but it is also quite possible that 
he had not heard of it, and the Rialto which he causes Shylock to men- 
tion was really the island from which the bridge takes its name. How- 
ever, that is a matter to which we need not devote much of our time. 
Shakespeare is dead, and so are Shylock and Antonio, and all the other 
persons mentioned in ' The Merchant of Venice ;' the bridge still ex- 
ists, and that is enough for our purpose." 

Soon after this little discussion our friends reached the hotel. One 
of the boatmen held the gondola firmly against the lower step of the 
landing -stairs while our friends exchanged their craft for firm footing 
on shore. The steps led up to a wide portico, which gave entrance into 
a large hall. Around this hall were many pieces of statuary, and Mar}^ 
observed that the ceiling had been in its time handsomely decorated, 
though the colors in most instances were considerably faded. Stair- 
ways at the side of the large hall led to the upper stories of the build- 
ing. In these upper stories were the rooms which were formerly occu- 
pied by the family and dependents of the owner, and in modern times 
have been appropriated to the accommodation of travellers. 

Frank asked for rooms fronting on the canal, but the travellers Avere 
unable to obtain sleeping-rooms in this situation. However, their wants 
were fairly gratified by securing a large parlor directly facing the canal, 
and opening upon an arched portico, on which they could sit and study 
the life of Venice as it ebbed and flowed beneath them. 

The palaces of Venice were constructed in the days of the city's 
greatest prosperity, and it would seem as if the aristocracy were ready 
to spend their fortunes in eclipsing each other in extravagance. Some 
of the palaces are suitable residences for kings or emperors, although 
they were built simply as the homes of private gentlemen. Not only 
did their erection cost enormous sums of money, but the expense of 



WORKS OF ART IN VENICE. 13 

maintaining them must have involved an expenditure which would 
make an enormous drain upon any private fortune. Many of the pal- 
aces formerly contained great quantities of paintings, statuary, and 
other works of art, and some of these galleries were in themselves 
worth enormous amounts. Yery few of the collections remain intact ; 
they have been sold and scattered in all directions to supply the wants 
of the needy descendants of the former great men of Venice. Some of 




SPECIMEN OF MOSAIC WORK, 



the finest statues in the galleries of Eome, Paris, and London came 
from Yenetian collections, and the same can be said of many famous 
and valuable paintings. Of the latter may be mentioned the celebrated 
picture of " Darius at Alexandria," by Paolo Yeronese : this was for- 
merly in the Pisani Palace, but is now in England. 

As soon as our friends were settled at the hotel they went out for 
a stroll. Mrs. Bassett asked if it would be possible for them to move 
about at all without a boat ? to which Frank replied that Yenice was 
so peculiarly constructed, one could go over it in a boat and also on foot. 

" Oh, thank you," said Mrs. Bassett. "As we have had a little jour- 
ney in a boat coming from the railway to the hotel, I suggest that we 
take a walk now to some of the points of interest." 

Of course the suggestion was promptly accepted by the rest of the 
party. A guide from the hotel was engaged to attend upon the trav- 



14 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



ellers during their stay ; and when they were ready for departure, Frank 
told the man to show the way to the Piazza San Marco, or St. Mark's 
Square, the principal square of the city. 

" What funny little streets !" exclaimed Mrs. Bassett, as the guide 
led the way through a passage that did not seem to be more than six or 
seven feet wide. " I wonder if they really call this a street ?" 

" Oh, certainly," replied Frank ; " this is a street, a real street, and 
there are narrower streets than this in Venice." 

" Narrower ones than this !" said Mrs. Bassett. " Why, it seems im- 
possible to believe such an assertion." 

" Oh, madam," interrupted the guide, " I will show you streets only 
four or five feet wide, but then they are not fine ones like this. As 
we have no carriages in Venice, we get along very well without wide 
streets, such as they have in other cities. In the narrowest streets we 
go along single file, and sometimes there are places where we must hug 
the Avail closely to avoid hitting each other when passing." 

Mrs. Bassett observed that the streets were not only narrow, but 
crooked, and that they made a good many turnings. She was sure 
that she would be lost if she attempted to go back to the hotel alone, 
and suggested to Frank that the party must keep close together, or 
they would become separated at some of the numerous bends. 

At nearly every angle of the streets our friends found themselves on 

bridges spanning the canals, and 
Mary readily realized the force of 
Frank's remark that one could go 
all over the city on foot and all 
over it in a boat. '' I understand 
now," she remarked, " why the 
canal- where our hotel stands is 
called the Grand Canal : it is be- 
cause it is so very much larger 
than any of the others that we 
have seen thus far." 

"Yes," said Frank ; "the Grand 

Canal is 200 feet wide, while these 

branch canals vary from 10 feet 

upwards. Very few of them are 

more that 30 feet wide, and probably the majority do not exceed 15 feet." 

"I suppose these small canals are just as crooked as the streets?" 

said Mary, with an interested look towards her brother. 




GROUND-PLAN OF ST. MARK S SQUARE. 



HOW VENETIAN HOUSES ARE BUILT. 



15 



" Yes," was the reply, " they are quite as short and quite as crooked, 
but they furnish an admirable means of getting about and transporting 
merchandise. Let us stop a minute," said he, turning to the guide and 
looking along this canal. They were standing on a bridge over the 




THE HORSES OF ST. MARK. 



little waterway, which was not more than fifteen feet across. On each 
side there were the perpendicular walls of buildings three, four, or five 
stories in height, the windows opening upon the canal just as upon a 
street, and the front doors opening on flights of stone steps that 
reached down into the water. As they stood on the bridge a gondola 
swept beneath them and stopped at the steps of a house just beyond it. 
The boatman held the gondola in place while a well-dressed woman 
stepped lightly to the boat from the landing - place and took her place 
beneath the awning over the seats. 

" She's going out for a drive, I suppose," said Mary, " or possibly on 
a shopping excursion, or to make a round of calls. I suppose the ladies 
use their boats here just as those in New York and other cities use 
their carriages, do they not?" 

'' Just the same, mademoiselle," said the guide. " The ladies go 
shopping and calling with their gondolas, and the ladies and gentlemen 
take their promenades in boats just as they take them in carriages in 
cities elsewhere. Wait till evening, and you will see the people out for 



16 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

their moonlight drives. It is the time of the moon now, and the best 
time to see Yenice and the water around it." 

" That's why I planned to come here now," said Frank. " Venice 
with the moon is much more attractive than Venice without any moon. 
Doctor Bronson told me so, and I have heard the same from other 
travellers. Some of them set it down as a rule to go to Venice when 
the moon is full or approaching that condition, and never to go at 
any other time if they can avoid doing so." 

Later on, during their stay in the " City of the Sea," Fred became 
statistical. He said there were 147 canals in Venice, not including the 
Grand Canal ; that they intersected all parts of the city and each other, 
and were the equivalent of the streets and avenues of other cities. He 
believed that these smaller canals indicated the channels between the 
original islands on which Venice was founded. All the stone for the 
construction of Venice was brought from the main-land, as the islands 
when originally settled were mere aggregations of sand rising but a 
few feet above the surface of the water. " A great deal of the water 
between the islands had been occupied by buildings," Fred continued. 
" Wherever there was a broad channel it was probably narrowed down 
to the width just necessary for a canal, and not more. The remainder 
of it, I suppose, was filled in with earth and piles to furnish a solid 
foundation for the masonry erected there. The mean level of the 
streets is not more than three or four feet above the surface of the 
water at high tide, and the rise and fall of the tide at Venice and in 
this part of the Adriatic is little if any more than two feet." 

One might naturally suppose that a city built like Venice would be 
very damp, and that every house rising from the water would be more 
or less unhealthy in consequence of its position. Those who live there 
say this is not the case. In all houses of t/^ie better class, the principal 
floor is built of cement and stone. Cement does not transmit moisture 
as it is transmitted by stone or brick, and the builders of Venice appear 
to have understood this at a very early period of their work. In 
making one of their ground -floors they laid a bed of cement two or 
three inches thick, then covered it with small fragments of marble ; this 
marble layer being again covered with cement, and levelled off very 
fairly. When this mass had hardened, they laid upon it another floor, 
first of cement, and then of white and red marbles broken up into small 
fragments. These marbles were imbedded firmly in the cement, but 
were not covered over with that substance. When the cement had 
hardened, the surface was ground to a condition of smoothness by means 



MAKING A MOSAIC FLOOR. 



17 



of polishing - blocks of stone vigorously rubbed over the surface, their 
work being assisted by dry sand. There in no more durable floor in the 
world than a mosaic composition of this sort ; and, with all the skill of 
modern times it has been difficult if not impossible to surpass the 
mosaic floor of the Greeks and Romans, and especially those of the 
Venetians when properly constructed. 

The Venetian floor is an excellent protection against dampness, and 
in order to make sureness doubly sure and render their homes as 
healthy as possible, the Venetians devoted the rooms of the basement 
to kitchen and similar uses, while the living apartments were on the 
upper floors of the house. When the fogs roll in from seaward, Venice 



f 











IN A SMALL CANAL. 



is undeniably damp ; but the same may be said of other cities that are 
not built on a string of islands in the midst of the sea. 

Mrs. Bassett wondered if there were as many streets in Venice as 
there were canals. Fred replied that there are much more than ten 



18 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

times as many. " There are 147 canals," said he, " and 2194 streets. The 
widest of the streets do not exceed 25 feet, and probably the average 
width is less than 10 feet ; I don't believe you can find a single straight 
street in Venice that is 1500 feet long. Some of the streets stop short, 
or they turn at right angles or other angles, and some of them run on 
curves and almost come back to their starting-points." 

" I wonder if they have any streets like those Frank was telling us 
about a few days ago," said Mary, with an amused expression. 

" What was that ?" Fred asked. 

" Why," said the girl, " Frank said he had heard of a town, some- 
where out West in the United States, where they had a street which 
began very broad, and with rows of shade trees on each side, but as it 
got out into the country it kept growing smaller and smaller, and finally 
ended in a squirrel-track, and ran up a tree." 

"We will ask about that," said Fred, "when we get to the public 
gardens. If there is a tree w^ith a squirrel in it, we Avill watch and see 
if he has a street belonging all to himself." 

When they reached the Piazza San Marco, Mrs. Bassett made an 
exclamation of surprise. Their winding way through the labyrinth of 
streets had not prepared her for the fine sight that burst upon her view. 
They entered the square, which is a square more in name than in 
reality, at the point best adapted for seeing its principal points of 
interest. In reply to a question on the part of Mrs. Bassett, Fred said 
that the Piazza was 192 yards long, by 61 on the west side, and 90 yards- 
on the east. Three of the sides are enclosed by magnificent buildings^ 
which seem at first glance to be a single marble palace ; it is really a 
succession of palaces, which were once the residences of the Procurators. 
These w^ere the highest officers of the^Kepubhc, and from this circum- 
stance the palaces are called Procurazie, although the officials whose 
names they preserve have been dead and gone these hundred years. The 
finest of them were erected in the fifteenth century, and are creditable 
monuments to their architects. One building on the west side of the 
square is comparatively modern, having been erected in the early part 
of the present century, during the reign of Napoleon I. 

" We will take a stroll around the arcades," said Frank, " and look 
at the shops and the people. When you are tired, mamma," said he, 
turning to Mrs. Bassett, " please say so, and we will sit down at the 
nearest cafe ; you will find that there is no scarcity of cafes." 

The lower stories of the buildings occupying three sides of the 
Piazza are built on arcades, which form convenient promenades shel- 



THE ARCADES OF SAN MARCO. 



19 



tered alike from rain and sun. The principal shops and cafes of Venice 
are along these arcades ; on the second stories of the buildings a good 
many restaurants are established, and Frank suggested that when 
dinner-time came they would patronize one of these restaurants, and 
have a view of the Piazza while enjoying their meal. 

" Oh, that would be dehghtful !" said Mrs. Bassett and Mary almost 
in the same breath. " We couldn't do better." 




PLAN OF ST, MARK S CHURCH. 



'' Yery well," said Frank ; " perhaps I may as well make arrangements 
for dinner now, in order to make sure that we will have a table where 
w^e can look out of the window." Thereupon Frank excused himself 
for a minute, entered one of the restaurants, and speedily completed the 
arrangements he had suggested. 

When Frank returned from his mission, he found the rest of the 
party gazing intently into a window, where Yenetian pearls and jewelry 
were displayed. In addition to these there were bracelets, necklaces, 
and other ornaments in mosaic, together with glass and shells made up 
in many attractive ways. Mary remarked that the lion of St. Mark was 
on nearly every object displayed, and she was uncertain whether the 
lion belonged to Yenioe or Yenice to the lion. 



20 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

Mrs. Bassett asked what St. Mark had to do with Yenice ? 

'' "Why," answered Frank, " the remains of the evangelist are said 
to have been brought from Alexandria to Yenice in the year 828, and 
he is consequently the titulary saint of the city." 

'' Oh, I understand," said Mrs. Bassett. " That large church at the 
end of the square is the Church of St. Mark, is it not ?" 

" Certainly, mamma. That is the famous San Marco : it was begun in 
976, and its construction occupied very nearly one hundred years. Ad- 
ditions have been made to it since that time; but the church as it stands 
is an excellent specimen of the architecture of the days that are gone. 
The general shape of the building is that of a Greek cross, covered by 
a Byzantine dome in the centre, and a smaller dome at the extremity of 
each arm of the cross, making five domes in all." 

" Oh ! there is a mosaic pin with the picture of the church upon it," 
said Mary, calling attention to the article designated. " I want to ask 
the price of it, if there's no objection." 

" Wait a little," said Frank. " Don't be in a hurry to purchase your 
souvenirs. You will have abundant time and opportunity before we leave 
Yenice. And should you buy that pin, perhaps you might have cause to 
regret the purchase later on when you see a finer one at the same price, 
or perhaps less, in another shop." 

" Yes, you are right," said Mary. " I ought to have learned before 
this that we should not be in a hurry in making purchases of souvenirs 
of the cities we visit in our journeys." 

They walked along the arcade on the south side of the Piazza, 
passed near the Campanile, and then turned to the right, along the 
Piazzetta, till they reached the wall fronting upon the harbor. The 
view of the harbor of Yenice caused^ them to arrest their footsteps at 
the base of one of the columns near the water's edge ; and they stood 
there for several minutes, uttering scarce a word. The water was 
dotted with sails of many colors ; gondolas were shooting here and 
there, or lazily floating along the scarcely rippled surface ; in the back- 
ground were the islands that keep out the sea when the wind blows 
from the south ; to the right, and beyond the entrance of the Grand 
Canal, was the famous Punta della Salute ; while, turning slightly to the 
left, they had a view of the Palace of the Doges and the prison beyond. 
They found the prospect an enchanting one, and their opinion of it is 
echoed by the great majority of the visitors to the city. 



CHAPTER 11. 

ASCENDING THE CAMPANILE; VIEW FROM THE TOP.— NAPOLEON'S RIDE.— CHURCH 
OF ST. MARK; MOSAICS, AND OTHER ORNAMENTS; HISTORY OF THE CHURCH; 
THE BRONZE HORSES ; PALA D'ORO ; RELICS OF ST. MARK. — AT THE CAFE. — 
FLOWER-GIRLS AND PEDDLERS OF SOUVENIRS. — FEEDING THE PIGEONS OF 
VENICE; LEGEND CONCERNING THEM; HOW THE PIGEONS KNOW THE HOURS. 
— THE CLOCK- TOWER.— A MOONLIGHT EXCURSION. — SCRAPS OF HISTORY.— 
PALACE OF THE DOGES ; GIANTS' STAIRCASE ; ORIGIN OF THE NAME ; GOLDEN 
STAIRCASE; HALL OF THE GRAND COUNCIL, AND OTHER HALLS; PORTRAITS 
OF THE DOGES. — BRIDGE OF SIGHS.— MRS. BASSETT'S COMMENT. — THE PRISON 
AND ITS DUNGEONS. 



FRANK suggested that a good 
general view of Yenice could 
be obtained from the Campanile, 
and so they retraced their steps un- 
til they reached that famous tower. 
They paused a few moments near 
its base, Mrs. Bassett remarking 
that it looked like an old structure. 
Ered replied that it was founded 
very nearly 1000 years ago ; it was 
restored about 400 years ago, and 
finally completed in 1591. The 
upper part and the spire were con- 
structed by the same architect 
who built the Palace of the Doges. 

Mrs. Bassett thought that she 
and Mary would not make the as- 
cent ; but she changed her mind 
on learning that it was a gently 
inclined plane with only a very 
few steps at the top. 

"It is exactly like going up a 
gently sloping hill," said Frank. 




PORTA DELLA CARTA, ST. MARK S CHURCH. 



" We can go as slowly as we like, 



22 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



and rest when we like. I do not know another tower of the same 
height in the world that is as easy to climb as this one." 

The tradition is that Napoleon I. rode up the tower on the back of a 
donkey ; certainly there was nothing to prevent him from doing so, and 
there is nothing to prevent the modern traveller 
from imitating his example, except the absence of 
the donkey. Our friends made the trip much more 
easily than Mrs. Bassett had expected, and were 
amply rewarded for their exertions. The watchman 
at the summit indicated the various places of in- 
terest in the city, that lay below them like an out- 
spread map. He pointed out the islands of the 
Lagune, the chain of the Alps in the north, and 
the portion of the Adriatic that was visible in the 
south. Mary said she was forcibly reminded of 
the view of Amsterdam from the top of the City 
Hall, and Mrs. Bassett remarked that it recalled 
in some aspects, though not in all, the view from 
the summit of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. The top 
of the Campanile is 322 feet above the ground; 
consequently it affords a magnificent sweep of the 
vision over the city and the region immediately 
surrounding it. It is interesting to contemplate 
from that height the windings of the Grand Canal 
and of the smaller canals, and to note the posi- 
tions of the various islands on w^hich Venice is 
built, together with those of the islands that form the Lagune. 

On descending from the Campanile, Mrs. Bassett suggested a visit to 
the Church of St. Mark, and her suggestion was acted upon immediately. 
Mary thought she had never seen a church with so many columns, and 
she asked Frank how many of those columns there were about this 
venerable and interesting edifice. 

'' I don't know exactly," was the reply ; " but I believe there are 
fully 500 of them. You see that they present a great many varieties of 
styles in their capitals ; the most remarkable of them are said to be eight 
detached columns in the vestibule, four at each of the lateral portals on 
each side. We Avill make an observation of these columns, and note 
their peculiarities as we go through the church." 

Mrs. Bassett remarked on the great quantity of mosaics laid in the 
floor, and also upon the unevenness of the flooring. The guide said. 




BYZANTINE ENAMEL IN THE 
LIBRARY OF ST. MARK'S, 



IN THE CHURCH OF ST. MARK. 



23 



-there was an area of nearly 50,000 square feet of mosaics in the church, 
the oldest of them dating from early in the tenth century. 

Fred explained that the unevenness of the floor was probably be- 
cause of carelessness in making the foundations. Some parts had sunk 
more than others, and it is probable that the architects did not appreciate 
the immense weight that would be placed upon the foundations of the 
church, and consequently their tendency to settle. 

Before entering the building our friends took particular note of the 
bronze horses above the door, which formerly adorned the Arch of Con- 
stantine at Kome, and were taken from Eome to Constantinople. The 
Yenetians captured them during one of their wars, and brought the 
prizes to Yenice. When Yenice was conquered by J^apoleon I. he car- 




LION OF ST. mark's AND LANDING-PLACE. 



Tied these horses to Paris, where they were kept for a time. They 
were restored to their old places in front of the cathedral after the 
general peace of 1815. The horses are too small in proportion to the 
size of the building, and would look better on an arch similar to that 



24 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

for which they were constructed. They were admirably modelled, and 
are very interesting specimens of art work in bronze in the period when 
they were cast and put in their original place. 

Entering the church, our friends experienced a feeling of disappoint- 
ment, owing to the dimness of the light, which gave it a decidedly 
gloomy aspect. On every hand there were mosaics, of which by far 
the greater number had some reference to the life of St. Mark, or the 
removal and entombment of his remains within the church. The guide 
led the way to the basement, where there were numerous relics, and a 
vast amount of jewels and gold and silver vases, candlesticks, and other 
ornaments, together with covers of the Gospels made of gilt silver inlaid 
w^ith precious stones. Among the relics was a crystal vase which was 
said to contain the blood of the Saviour, a fragment of the true cross 
enclosed in a silver column, a portion of the skull of St. John in a cup 
of agate, and other vessels and cases containing bones of saints of 
greater or less celebrity, and all ancient. 

The great ornament of the church is the Pala d'Oro, which is at the 
high altar beneath a canopy of verd- antique. It is enamelled with 
jewels and beads wrought on plates of gold and silver executed at 
Constantinople in the twelfth century, and only exhibited at great fes- 
tivities. The relics of St. Mark are beneath the high altar, and this 
fact is recorded on a marble slab. There is a smaller altar behind the 
high altar, with four alabaster columns, of which two are said to have 
belonged to King Solomon's temple. 

The party spent an entire hour in the church contemplating its mo- 
saics and other ornaments ; and then, as Mrs. Bassett suggested that 
she was somewhat weary, they retired from the famous structure, and 
proceeded to one of the cafes on the ribrth side of the Piazza. 

Our friends did not have far to go to find a cafe, there being a 
goodly number of these establishments scattered along the sides of the 
Piazza. They indulged in the ices for which Venice is famous, and 
were much interested in the crowds of people strolling along the side- 
walk or across the open space of the Piazza. Almost every minute 
they were importuned by flower-girls, musicians, and peddlers, w^ho had 
all sorts of small wares to offer. Prominent among their wares were 
souvenirs of Venice in the shape of little mosaics and glass ornaments, 
such as we have mentioned already. The flower-girls were quite as 
numerous as the peddlers, and they seemed determined to force their 
wares on the strangers without regard to the desire of the latter to 
make any floral purchases. Several times they placed bunches of flow- 



VENETIAN CAFES AND PIGEONS. 



25 



ers in the hands of the members of the party, or on the table beside 
them, and then, considering the transaction complete, demanded pay 
for their wares. At first their performances were amusing, but after a 




VIEW OF VENICE FROM THE WATER. 



time they became monotonous, and the guide who had accompanied the 
party from the hotel was installed in oifice to keep the intruders away. 

While they were seated in front of the cafe, Mary espied several 
pigeons walking about the square, and apparently having no fear of 
harm, as they not infrequently allowed the pedestrians to step over 
them, or certainly very near them. The girl called attention to the 
tameness of the pigeons, whereupon the guide suggested that he would 
give her a better illustration of their fearlessness if the party would 
wait where it was for a few minutes. Frank nodded assent ; where- 
upon the guide proceeded to a grain-shop near one of the entrances of 
the square and purchased three or four quarts of corn. Taking this 
corn into the open square, he scattered some of the grains upon the 
pavement, and waited the result of his bounty. 

He did not have long to wait. Pigeons came from all directions^ 
till there were dozens — yes, hundreds of them ; at least, Mary thought 



26 



THE BOY TRAVELLEES IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



SO. The guide scattered some of the grain upon the pavement, and 
then held a quantity in his open hand. The birds ahghted upon his 
shoulder, fed from his hand, and seemed not to have the least fear of 
harm from him or anybody else. 

" Oh, I must go out and see them," said Mary. " I wonder if they 
will feed from my hand as they do from the guide's. Come, Fred, 
let's go and get close to them." 

Fred and Mary left the table and went to where the guide stood, 
leaving Mrs. Bassett and Frank at the cafe. The girl found that the 
pigeons were very nearly as friendly to herself and Fred as to the 




CARRIER-PIGEONS WITH LETTERS. 



guide, though not quite as much. The reason for their shyness was 
probably because Fred and Mary were strangers, while the guide was 
an old acquaintance of the birds. When all the grain had been con- 
sumed, Fred and Mary returned to the cafe, just as Mrs. Bassett was 
expressing her astonishment at the great number of pigeons that had 
assembled, and wondering to whom they belonged. 

" There are two stories about the pigeons," said Frank, " and both 
of them have relation to the history of Venice." 




A BALCONY SCENE 



'^Please give us both of 
sett. "I'm sure they will be 

"Yery well," said Frank. 
Admiral Dandolo, with a fleet 
ice, was besieging Candia in the 



them," said Mrs. Bas- 
very interesting." 
" One account is that 
and army from Yen- 
early part of the thir- 



teenth century. By means of carrier-pigeons he received intelligence 
from Candia which greatly facilitated his enterprise, and led to the 
speedy surrender of the besieged place and garrison. 

" When he sent the news of his victory to Yenice, he sent the pigeons 
that had been of such great use to him ; whereupon the authorities of 



28 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



Yenice decided that the pigeons should be maintained at the public ex- 
pense in remembrance of the victory, and not only those identical 
pigeons, but their descendants as long as the city existed, and they 
made provision for the support of the birds in future times by setting 
aside a sum of mone}^ to be invested on their account." 

Frank paused, and then Mary asked what the other story was. 
"Oh, the other," said Frank, "is that Venice was once surrounded 

by a besieging army, and in great 
danger of capture. The starving 
inhabitants were contemplating 
surrender; they were so poorly 
supplied with food that they could 
give nothing to the pigeons that 
then lived in the bell-towers, and 
consequently the birds were obliged 
to go to the main-land to obtain 
something to keep them alive. 

"An army was coming to the 
relief of Venice, but the lines of 
the besiegers were so closely drawn 
that it was impossible to send any 
messengers to announce the good 
news. The commander of the re- 
lieving army managed to catch 
several of the pigeons, and attach 
letters to them announcing hi& 
a^pproach. When the birds flew 
home, the attention of the citizens 
was attracted to the bits of paper 
fastened to the feet of the pigeons. 
They caught the winged messen- 
gers and obtained the letters, and were thus encouraged to hold out 
until the besieging army was attacked and driven away. In their grat. 
itude for their deliverance they voted to support the pigeons and their 
descendants forever afterwards at the public expense." 

" But are they really supported at public expense ?" Mrs. Bassett 
asked, as Frank paused at the end of his story. 

" To some extent they are," answered Frank. " To-morrow we will 
try to come here at two o'clock, and then you will see how they are 
cared for." 




TIIK BRIDGK OF SIGHS. 



PIGEONS AS TIME-KEEPERS. 



29 



A little before 
two o'clock on the 
next day our 
friends were in the 
Piazza. As the 
clock struck the 
hour the pigeons 
came flying from 
all directions, and 
gathered beneath 
a certain window 
on the north side 
of the square. The 
window opened 
suddenly, and a 
quantity of grain 
was thrown out 
and speedily de- 
voured. This was 
the daily allowance 
which the birds re- 
ceived regularly. 

It is not suffi- 
cient for their sup- 
port; and if the 
pigeons were 
obhged to depend 
entirely upon the 
bounty of the city, 
they would not be 
in the plump and 
well-fed condition 
in which we find 
them. A consider- 
able amount of 
grain is given to 
them by the inhab- 
itants, and also by 
the numerous par- 
ties of strangers 




LION OF ST. MARK AND PALACE OF THK DOGES. 



30 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

that are constantly making the sight-seeing rounds of the famous city. 
Then, too, the birds fly to the neighboring islands and to the main-land, 
and in one way and another they manage to obtain a very comfortable 
existence. It is said that they carefully avoid the neighborhood of 
certain restaurants where broiled roasts or stewed pigeons appear on 
the bill of fare, as some of their number have disappeared there. 

Mary was particularly interested and amused to observe that the 
pigeons paid no attention to the hours as they were struck in the bell- 
tower which overlooks the square, except the hour when they were fed. 
The clock strikes ten, twelve, one, or three, and they do not regard the 
strokes in the least ; but when the hour of two is sounded, they know 
that it is their feeding-time, and assemble accordingly. 

Naturally the striking of the hour called attention to the clock- 
tower whence the signal is given. It is on the side of the square, oppo- 
site to the Campanile, at the eastern end of the old Procurazie, and 
above a gateway which resembles a triumphal arch. The guide said the 
tower was erected in 1496, and restored in 1859. On the platform 
where the bell hangs there are two Yulcans in bronze, provided with 
large hammers, and with these hammers they strike the hours on the 
bell, as they have done for centuries. 

After our friends had rested a sufficient time at the cafe, they visited 
the tower, and examined the mechanisin of the clock ; it is certainly a 
very ingenious piece of work, though not equal to the famous clock of 
Strasburg, which is exceedingly complicated. 

From the clock-tower they went to the Palace of the Doges, which 
has been mentioned heretofore, and is one of the great attractions of 
Venice. It was too late in the day for a thorough examination of the 
building, and therefore they contented themselves with an exterior view 
without attempting to penetrate into the interior. Mrs. Bassett wished 
to know how large the building was, to which Fred replied that it was 
very nearly 250 feet square. He said it was founded in the year 800, 
and had been destroyed no fewer than five times, but each time it had 
been rebuilt more magnificently than before. " The present edifice,'' 
Fred continued, " was erected about 1350, and has been restored with- 
out any material alterations on several occasions since that time." 

The stroll around the outside of the palace was continued to the 
canal, which separates that building from the prison ; the latter struct- 
ure is less venerable than the palace, but has held many persons of dis- 
tinction, together with a great many others of no distinction whatever. 
On the bridge over the canal our friends paused and looked between 



^il 11,111, 



%l 




MOONLIGHT ON THE WATER. 



the buildings towards a little bridge which connects them at a consider- 
able elevation above the water beneath it. 

" I know^ what that is," said Mary, " that is the Bridge of Sighs. 
You know, Byron mentions it in his account of Venice, where he says : 



I stood in Venice, on the Bridge of Sighs ; 
A palace and a prison on either hand.'" 



32 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



'' You are right," said Frank. " That is the Bridge of Sighs, about 
which so much has been written by poets and others." 

"It is a bridge of very small size, it seems to me," Mrs. Bassett re- 
marked. " There are lots of bridges all over the world much greater 
than that. Why, the Rialto is ever and ever so much larger !" 

" It received its name," said Frank, " not from its dimensions, but 
from circumstances connected with its history. It is the bridge over 

which prisoners Avere taken 
from the prison to the pal- 
ace, to hear their sentences 
of death. The Italian name 
is Ponte dei Sospiri, and 
was given in consequence 
of the sounds of wailing 
that rose from the prison- 
ers after they had received 
their sentences and were be- 
ing led across the bridge to 
execution. We will see the 
bridge to-morrow, when we 
visit the palace; and now, 
as we are at the harbor of 
Venice, we will have anoth- 
er excursion in a gondola." 
There was no difficulty 
in finding a boat, as the 
Molo in front of the palace 
is the favorite haunt of the gondoliers. This part of Venice is the 
resort of sailors, and an interesting and animated scene is presented 
to the stranger. Numerous small vessels lie at the quays, and larger 
ones at anchor in the harbor directly in front. It is a favorite spot 
for artists, as the variegated colors of the sails of the Venetian boats 
enable them to produce pictures of great brilliancy. An hour or more 
was devoted by our friends to their excursion on the water, many 
interesting sights being seen, and in due time they arrived at their 
hotel, and were ready for dinner. 

After dinner a boat with seats for four was secured— a gondola, with 
two rowers— and the party went out to enjoy the moonlight on the 
water. They passed along the Grand Canal, and then paddled out into 
the harbor, where they could study the effects of the silver light upon 




ANDREA GRITTI, DOGE OF VENICE. 



AFLOAT IN A GONDOLA. 



33 



the Palace of the Doges and the other buildings that look towards the 
sea. It was a night to be long remembered, and all regretted the impos- 
sibility of representing in printed or written words the pictures that 
had passed before their eyes. Mary declared that she never before 
realized the poverty of language. " As well attempt," said she, " to 
tell how the dew glistens or the strawberry tastes as to write a de- 
scription of a moonlight night in Venice. Only an artist can approach 
it, and even then the work of the greatest painter that ever lived will 
fall very far short of the reality." 

As they floated slowly along, Fred recounted to his companions 
something of the history of Venice. Afterwards, at Mrs. Bassett's re- 
quest, he committed his remarks to paper, with the following result : 

" In the early part of its existence Venice had a republican form of 
government, its rulers being elected by the people. These rulers were 
called tribunes, and were usually twelve in number. About the year 
697 the scheme of government was changed by abolishing the tribunes 



and vesting the entire civil, eccle- 
tary power in the hands of a duke, 
should be elected as the tribunes 
Luca Anafesto was the first doge 
he ruled for twenty years, and, 
accounts, he was a good ruler, and 
Republic prospered in his hands, 
succeeded him were men of abil- 
creased the power and wealth of 






4 -I 



^U 




siastical, and mili- 
or doge, who 
had been. Paolo 
elected to office; 
according to all 
the affairs of the 
Some of those who 
ity, and they in- 
the Republic; 



iv-g:^ i 'l' 



A VENETIAN MARKET-BOAT. 



34 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

while others were tyrants, who led dissolute lives and did not scruple 
to make themselves and sometimes their friends rich by any means in 
their power.-' 

" Was it not possible for the people to remove bad rulers from office 
and choose good ones instead ?" Mrs. Bassett asked at this point. 

" Yes,'' replied Fred ; " and they did so in several instances. The 
punishment for tyranny in Venice at that time was putting out the 
eyes. Some of the tyrannical doges were deprived of sight, while others 
were assassinated by conspirators against them." 

" As Venice became powerful she went to war with others," Fred 
continued. " She took part in the Crusades, and sent out many military 
and naval expeditions. At one time Venice had extensive possessions 
on the main-land of Italy, and owned several islands, including Candia 
and Zante, in the eastern part of the Mediterranean. It had an enor- 
mous commerce, as it controlled a large part of the trade between 
Europe and Asia. At the end of the fifteenth century it had a popu- 
lation of 200,000, and possessed 300 sea-going vessels, manned by 8000 
sailors ; it had 3000 smaller craft, with 17,000 sailors ; and a fleet of 
45 galleys, manned by 11,000 men, who were renowned for their fight- 
ing abilities. About this time its prosperity began to decline, owing to 
changes in the routes of trade and to various political circumstances. 

" The tyranny of the aristocracy and the infamous action of the 
Council of Ten aided tjie decline ; and by the end of the eighteenth 
century nearly all its trade was gone, and the population had fallen to 
60,000. Napoleon took possession of Venice in 1797, and made an 
end of the Eepublic. It has sinbe belonged to France, Austria, and 
Italy, the latter country having possessed it since 1866." 

" How many inhabitants has it at the present time ?" queried Mary. 

" About one hundred and thirty thousand," replied Fred. " The 
commerce of Venice has increased considerably since it came under 
Italian control, but is never likely to reach the condition it attained 
four hundred years ago. There is a great deal of poverty here, and I 
have heard it said that no fewer than thirty thousand people of Venice 
are virtually or actually paupers." 

On their second day in Venice it was decided that the first thing to 
be seen w^as the Palace of the Doges, the exterior view of the day be- 
fore having whetted their desire to study it internally. Of their visit 
to the palace Frank wrote the following account : 

" We entered the palace by the Porta della Carta, which is on the 
side towards the square, and the one by which most visitors enter. 



DOGES' PALACE. 



35 



There is another entrance on the side facing the sea, and about midway 
along the front. There is a colonnade two stories high on the front 
and side of the palace, and the gate by which we entered is a little back 
of the colonnade, and finished in the same general style. The gateway 
is of itself a building of no mean size and beauty. 

'' After passing the doorway we came into a hall perhaps twenty 
feet wide, and then entered the court at the foot of the Giant's Stair- 
case. The staircase does not get its name because it was intended for 




TITIAN'S house in VENICE. 



the use of giants, but on account of two colossal statues of Mars and 
Neptune which stand at the top of the stairway, and are said to have 
been made more than three hundred years ago. 

" The staircase consists of thirty marble steps, with a broad landing 
about half-way up. The steps are so broad that they take up three 
arches of the arcade, and they are beautifully inlaid in front with mar- 
bles of different colors arranged in the tracery of a vine. There is a 
fine balustrade of white marble, inlaid with panels of colored marbles. 

" This staircase takes us to the second story of the palace. Then 



36 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

• we follow along the colonnade towards the centre of the building till 
we come to the Golden Staircase, which leads to the third story. Mary 
remarked that the stairway belied its name, because there was no gold 
about it ; whereupon Fred explained that the name came from the cir- 
cumstance that nobody was allowed to use it unless his name was to be 
found in the Golden Book, which contained a list of privileged persons. 
It is a magnificent staircase, constructed of marble, and with an arched 
ceiling which is richly decorated with panels in gilt stucco and fresco. 
It must have cost a great deal of money, and taken a great deal of time 
in its construction and adornment. 

" These are not by any means the only staircases in the palace, as 
there are several of them intended for ordinary use. All through the 
palace there are magnificent works of art— statues, paintings, and the 
like — which indicate the former wealth of the city, and its appreciation 
of the sculptors and artists of the time of its prosperity. To give you a 
list of the pictures and of the paintings and statuary that adorn the pal- 
aces would make a wearisome catalogue, which you would not be likely 
to take the trouble. to read or preserve. 

" The Hall of the Grand Council was one of the first of the apart- 
ments that we visited. It is 55 yards long by 26 in width, and the ceil- 
ing is 50 feet high — at least, that is what the custodian told us This 
was the meeting-place of the Nobili, whose names were written m the 
Golden Book, and who constituted the highest authority in the Kepub- 
lic. The frieze of the hall is ornamented with the portraits of seventy- 
six doges, and the walls are coyered with twenty -one large pictures 
commemorating the battles in which the Republic was victorious. 

^' On the eastern wall is Tintoretto's ' Paradise,' which is said to be 
the largest oil-painting in the world. The portrait of one of the doges 
is covered with a black cloth, and an mscri-ption beneath it shows that 
the cloth hides the features of Marino Faliero. Perliaps you wonder 
who he was. According to history, he incited the plebeians to a con- 
spiracy against the nobles, in which the latter were to have been assas- 
sinated. The plot was revealed by one of the conspirators ; and Faliero 
was tried for his crime, and beheaded in 1355. Lord Byron wrote a 
very interesting drama upon the subject." 

Mrs. Bassett remarked that she supposed Faliero was a young and 
ambitious man, and Avas very much surprised when told that he was 
eighty years old at the time of his execution. She wondered how a 
man of that age could think of entering into a conspiracy, when it was 
quite unlikely that he would live long enough to see it carried out. 



38 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

" Another large hall in the palace is that of the Senate, which is 100 
feet long by 50 feet in width, with a ceiling about 35 feet high. Its 
Avails and ceilings are as richly decorated as those of the other halls. 
The Venetian Senate used to meet there, and the room opens into the 
anteroom of the chapel of the Doge. From the chapel one can go into 
the audience hall, where the Doge used to receive the foreign ambas- 
sadors with a great deal of ceremony. 

" The frescos which adorn the audience hall are historical and re- 
ligious, and were mostly made by Tintoretto. In fact, before we got 
through with the Palace of the Doges we came to the conclusion that 
Tintoretto was certainly one of the most industrious artists that ever 
lived, even if he painted no more than we saw in this one building. 
His real name was Eobusti, and he assumed that of Tintoretto from 
the occupation of his father, who was a dyer. He was born at Venice, 
in 1512, and his son and daughter were both painters of no mean abil- 
ity. It has been suggested that they must have helped him with his 
work ; but, whether this be the case or not, it is very certain that few 
artists of any time have ever surpassed him in rapidity of execution. 

" I cannot remember the names of all the rooms in the palace that 
we went through, but I do remember the Library, the Museum, and the 
Hall of Scrutiny, together with the rooms of the busts, bronzes, and the 
scarlet robes. In the Hall of Scrutiny the doges were chosen by the 
electors appointed for that duty, and their meetings must certainly have 
been very interesting for a spectator. 

" We were all curious to see the Hall of the Bussola. It is not a 
very large hall, but is famous on account of its connection with the 
Bussola, or Lion's Mouth, where those who wished to accuse anybody 
deposited their accusation. The papers were dropped into the Lion's 
Mouth, in the exterior hall, and went down his throat into an iron chest 
which was concealed in the wall. The door of this chest opened into 
the Hall of the Bussola, which was the anteroom of the Hall of the 
Council of Three, one of those infamous secret tribunals of which we 
read in the history of Venice. It was also the anteroom of the Council 
of Ten, the two halls being side by side. 

'' A chill came over all of us as we stood in the Hall of the Council 
of Ten, and looked at the long table surrounded with the original chairs 
in which the inquisitors used to sit and condemn to death many of the 
best citizens of Venice. There was no appeal from their sentence ; 
their decrees were made ; the victims were immediately arrested, for- 
bidden to communicate with friends, imprisoned, and tortured as the 




VENETIAN PRISONS. 39 

inquisitors might order, and 
finally put to death. And death 
was not always decreed to 
them in merciful ways ; they 
were imprisoned in the dun- 
geons in the basement of the 
palace, and starved and de- 
prived of light and air until 
death came as a happy release 
from suffering. 

" We were also shown to 

, , T-x. , . . T A SANDOLO. 

the Jriombi, or prisons under 

the leaden roof of the palace ; 

or, rather, we were shown the place where these prisons once stood, 

as they were destroyed in the year 179Y, when the Republic fell. 

" Before we left the building we were taken to the Pozzi, or dun- 
geons where the victims of the Council of Ten were sent. They have 
not been used for a long time, and among all the prisons that I've ever 
seen they certainly appear to me the most dreadful. There are two 
tiers of dungeons, one above the other, ten dungeons in a tier, and con- 
structed of solid stone masonry. The upper tier was for criminals, and 
the lower one for political offenders and suspects. 

" We went into one of the dungeons, and found the door of it so 
low that we had to stoop almost to a creeping posture. The room is 
twelve feet long, perhaps eight feet high, and of the same width. The 
ceiling is arched ; the floor is of cement, as hard as stone ; and there is 
no furniture whatever, except a stone pillow set in the floor. In some 
instances we were told that in place of this fixed pillow there was a 
common paving-stone which took its place. 

''We went through the Bridge of Sighs into the prison, and found 
that there were two passage-ways. The story is that one of these was 
used for criminals, and the other for political victims. According to an- 
other account, when prisoners were taken before the Council of Ten to 
hear their sentence to death they were led through one of the passage- 
ways, but on their return were taken through the other. How much 
truth there is in either of these statements I am unable to say." 



CHAPTEK III. 

THE ARSENAL; TROPHIES OF VENETIAN WARS; ANCIENT GALLEY; GALLEY- 
SLAVES, AND THEIR LIFE ; THE ^f/C'/A^r^iiea — CEREMONY OF MARRYING 
VENICE TO THE ADRIATIC— ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS, AND OTHER SIGHTS.— 
THE LIDO.— A VISIT TO MURANO ; ITS FAMOUS INDUSTRY.— VENETIAN GLASS, 
AND HOW IT IS MADE.— WHAT OUR FRIENDS HEARD AND SAW AT MURANO ; 
DESCRIPTION OF MURANO IN 1495. — LEAVING VENICE ; EXAMINATION OF 
BAGGAGE.— A FREE PORT. — PADUA, AND ITS CHURCH. — ST. ANTHONY OF 
PADUA.— THE ITALIAN GOVERNMENT, AND HOW IT IS ADMINISTERED.— THE 
KING AND PARLIAMENT.— COUNT CAVOUR, AND WHAT HE DID. -FORMATION 
OF THE KINGDOM.— VERONA.— THE QUADRILATERAL. 




-^^r^mitr&^j^ 






'^.. 






^^ 








VENETIAN 


SAILS. 



^jPHE visit to the Doge's Palace, although interesting, was fatiguing, 
-^- and when our friends came upon the quay Mrs. Bassett suggested 
that an hour or so in a gondola Avould be agreeable. Accordingly a 
boat was engaged, and the party started for a brief excursion, in which 
they could combine resting and sight-seeing in a very comfortable way. 
At Frank's suggestion they went to the Arsenal, whicli is said to 
have employed 20,000 workmen during the time of the highest pros- 
perity of the Kepublic, but at present it has fewer than 2000. Consider- 
able portions of the Arsenal are unoccupied, and there is little sign of 



ANCIENT VENETIAN VESSELS. 



41 



activity about the place. Frank called attention to the handsome gate- 
way, which is said to be more than 400 years old, and is ornamented by 
four very ancient lions which were brought from Greece in 1687. One 
of them is thought to have stood on the battle-field of Marathon ; its 
body is covered with inscriptions in the Greek language, but they are 
so worn and defaced that they are no longer legible. 

One of the objects of interest in the Arsenal is the model of an 
ancient Yenetian vessel, and our friends were greatly interested in ex- 
amining it. The Venetians were among the earliest navigators to make 
use of sails, but for a very long time in the early history of the Kepublic 
their vessels were propelled by means of oars. Some of the Venetian 




GALLEY OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



galleys had two or three tiers of oars, and the work of propelling a boat 
in this way was exceedingly tiresome. The largest of the Venetian 
galleys had a length of 150 feet and more, and they carried twelve 
guns. Most of the oarsmen were convicts or prisoners of war, and they 
were encouraged to labor by means of the lash. When the galleys 



42 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

went into battle the convicts, or galley-slaves, were chained to their 
seats, so that they could not desert their posts ; and if the vessel 
happened to be sunk, the slaves went down with it. The life of a con- 
vict on one of these vessels was very hard, and the phrase " suffering 
like a galley-slave" has become proverbial. In ancient times the 
severest punishment next to death was to be sent to the galleys. 

There is a fine collection of weapons in the Arsenal, though it is 
only a small portion of what was formerly there, the greater part of 
the collection having been carried away by the Austrians in 1866, when 
Venice was ceded to Italy. Frank and Fred were particularly inter- 
ested in looking at the great assortment of weapons and means of de- 
fence, and especially at the suit of armor of Henry lY. of France, 
which was presented to the Kepublic, and also at the armor of some of 
the doges of Venice in the days when that sort of clothing Avas fashion- 
able. The guide called their attention to several instruments of torture, 
from which they quickly turned away to inspect the iron helmet of 
Attila, King of the Huns, and the banners that were carried or captured 
in the battles in which Venice was victorious. 

Mrs. Bassett and Mary were interested in looking at the remains of 
the Bucintoro^ a vessel which had been carefully preserved down to the 
end of the last century, when it was destroyed by the French at the 
time of the capture of Venice. This was the barge on which the Doge 
went annually, on Ascension Day, to perform the marriage ceremony 
between Venice and the Adriatic. 

" You know," said Mary to her mother, " that it was a custom^ 
which had been ordained by one of the Popes, to marry the city to the 
sea. The ceremony was a very grand one, and the Doge went on this 
vessel, followed by a whole fleet of other craft, to the channel which 
forms the entrance to the harbor. There he threw a ring into the sea 
as he pronounced the words which united it with the city." 

Evidently the barge was a very handsome one, as the portion of it 
that still exists is covered with carved and gilded figures. Mrs. Bassett 
suggested that she would like very much to obtain one of the rings with 
which the ceremony was performed, and asked Frank if he knew 
whether any of the fishermen of Venice had ever dredged for them. 
Frank was inclined to doubt if such dredging had ever been under- 
taken; but he said he Avas confident that any museum of antiquities in 
Venice Avould offer to procure one of the precious rings, provided a 
satisfactory price Avere paid for it Avhen deliA^ered. 

After visiting the Arsenal, the party returned to the boat and con- 



THE LIDO AND MURANO. 



43 



tinued their excursion. We will not undertake to follow them through- 
out all their journey, which included, before the day was ended, several 
churches, the Academy of Fine Arts, the public gardens, and other 
places of interest. Instead of returning to the hotel for dinner, they 
dined at one of the restaurants overlooking the Square of St. Mark, 
and they did not forget to be in the square at two o'clock, the time for 







THE "BUCIxNTORO. 



the feeding of the pigeons. The evening was devoted to another moon- 
light excursion, which was quite as much enjoyed as was the first one. 

On their third day they made an excursion to the Lido, one of the 
long sandy islands which separates the harbor of Yenice from the 
Adriatic. They combined this visit with a trip to Murano, an island 
which is interesting on account of its extensive manufacture of glass 
vessels and beads, together with mosaics and other things in glass, 
crystal, and stone. The manufacture of these articles is one of the in- 
dustries of Yenice, and our friends all agreed that they would have re- 
gretted very much had they omitted visiting the island. 

While they were on their trip to Murano, Fred explained that the 
manufacture of glass was established there more than 600 years ago. 
At one time the glass of Yenice was considered superior to that of any 



44 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

part of the world, and thousands of workmen were employed in the in- 
dustry. Specimens of the ancient manufacture are not easy to find at 
the present time. The best work of Murano was done in the sixteenth 
and seventeenth centuries, and some of the arts of coloring and other- 
wise beautifying the glass have been altogether lost. Of late years 
there has been a revival of the industry, and some of the articles pro- 
duced by the modern workers are of very fine quality. 

On their arrival at the factory our friends were taken in charge by 
one of the officials of the establishment, and received every attention. 
Of course the attention was not entirely disinterested, as it was ex- 
pected that the visitors would make purchases of souvenirs, and this ex- 
pectation did not result in disappointment. 

Frank explained to his mother that of all the people who had made 
glass-work a special industry, the Venetians w^ere the most famous for 
their artistic varieties and qualities. It is thought that the art of glass- 
making was brought to Venice from Constantinople and Egypt about 
the twelfth century, or, possibly, early in the thirteenth. According to 
history, water-bottles and table-ware were made in Venice in 1268, and 
less than ten years later the Government made a law forbidding expor- 
tations of the materials used in the manufacture of glass. The Govern- 
ment did everything to make the industry a national monopoly, and it 
succeeded so well that the best specimens of Venetian w^ork controlled 
the markets of the Avorld for a very long time. 

Other countries established the glass industry, but none of them suc- 
ceeded in rivalling the work of the Venetians. The Venetian Govern- 
ment also made the art of glass-making a matter of nobility, and con- 
ferred special privileges on the guild of glass - makers. They were 
exempt from trial in the inferior courts, but were under the special 
jurisdiction of the famous (and infamous) Council of Ten. To show 
how^ extensive the industry was 400 years ago, we will quote from 
Coccio Sabellico's account of his visit to Venice about 1495. He thus 
describes his visit to Murano : 



"There is a street which might, from the magnificence and size of its edifices to 
those who beheld it from afar, appear a city ; it extends a mile in length, and is illustri- 
ous on account of its glasshouses. A famous invention first proved that glass might 
feign the whiteness of crystal ; and as the wits of men are active and not slothful in add- 
ing something to inventions, they soon began to turn the material into various colors and 
numberless forms. Hence came cups, beakers, tankards, caldrons, ewers, candlesticks, 
animals of every sort, horns, necklaces ; hence all things that can delight mankind ; 
hence whatever can attract the eyes of mortals ; and what we could dare hardly to hope 



46 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



for, there is no kind of precious stone which cannot be imitated by the industry of the 
glass-workers. Consider it to whom it did occur to include in a little ball all the sorts of 
flowers which clothe the meadows in spring ! Nor has the invention been confined to 
one house or family ; the street glows for the most part with the furnaces of this kind." 



>^- 



" Murano does not equal that now," said Mrs. Bassett, when Frank 
read to her the foregoing paragraph. " There is certainly no street a 
mile long, or even the half of it, devoted to glass-making." 

" Perhaps the statement of the 
length of the street is a little exag- 
gerated," Frank replied ; " but there is 
no doubt of the importance of the 
industry at that time. It was a period 
of great prosperity in glass - making, 
and that it was carefully cared for 
is shown by the rules made by the 
Government for its regulation. Any 
Venetian workman who went to an- 
other country and taught the prin- 
ciples of his craft was condemned to 
death, and secret emissaries were sent 
to carry out the sentence. A decree 
was issued in .1549 that any workmen 
Avho were caught leaving the country 
should be fined and sent to the gal- 
leys, and no foreigners could be em- 
ployed in the glass-houses. It is fair 
for us to say that very few workmen 
were inclined to go abroad, partly on 
account of the risk they ran, and 
partly because their skill was well re- 
warded at home. 

" In the year 1500 there were 
twenty-four establishments at Murano 
devoted to the manufacture of glass- 
ware, and during the period of • the 
greatest prosperity of the industry — 
the fifteenth, the sixteenth, and seven- 
teenth centuries — Murano had 30,000 inhabitants, where it now has 
only four or five thousand. Every owner of a factory was required to 
contribute a certain sum of monev annually for the support of old or 




MUUANO cur OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY, 



RULES REGULATING GLASS MANUFACTURE. 



47 



disabled workers in glass, or for those out of employment, and also for 
the support of schools of inventive designs. There were the most 
rigid rules in regard to apprenticeship and the admission of an ap- 
prentice as a master-w^orkman. Every workman before his admission 







CUPS IN MULTICOLORED GLASS. 



was required to prove his skill by the manufacture of certain objects 
in glass. A proprietor or a master-workman who had served ten years 
at his occupation and then failed in business, or had no means of sup- 
port, received a pension which placed him above actual want. When 
there was an excess of master- workmen, it was forbidden to increase 
the number from the apprentices until business had revived and there 
was an actual demand for more labor." 

During their visit to Murano, Frank and Fred, assisted by Mary, 
made some notes on the subject of glass-making, from which we are 
permitted to take the following graphic description : 

" We cannot begin to tell you about all the beautiful things in 
glass that we have seen. The glass-makers of Murano, at the present 
time, have successfully imitated many of the best examples of the 
work of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries ; we saw some of the 



48 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



modern specimens side by side with the ancient ones from which they 
were copied, and the imitation was so perfect that it was not easy to 
distinguish the new from the old. The workmen possessed wonderful 
skill in blending different colors ; sometimes there are two colors in 
the body of a cup or drinking-glass, one on the outside and the other 
on the inside. Sometimes the body of a cup or vase will be made 
of colorless glass, and then a variety of colors laid on in threads, or 
twisted in various fantastic ways, appear on the outside or on the 
handles, and all blended in the greatest harmony. 

" Some of the glasses are very profusely enamelled and gilded. 
Originally this style of work was confined to the heavier objects, as 
they required considerable strength of material, but as the art pro- 
gressed this blending of colors was carried into very delicate pieces 
of work. Sometimes there are decorations in the shape of pictures, 
such as portraits, processions, coats of arms, and inscriptions, together 
with lace and scroll work, and various complicated designs. 

" Others, again, are ornamented with flowers or garlands, and we 
are greatly impressed with the amount of patience 
that must have been required to produce these ar- 
ticles. The old workers at one time used to paint 

the inner surfaces of cups 
and dishes with oil colors, 
and then cover them with 
a glazing to protect them 
from injury. Great skill 
was required in the prep- 
aration of these articles, 
and a large proportion of 
them were destroyed by 
accident in the furnace 
when the finishing touches 
were being applied. Con- 
sequently these things are 
very scarce and very dear. 
One was shown to us for 
which $5000 was asked, 
but it is proper to say 
that we did not buy it. 
" We saw a good many specimens of glass with a rough surface, as 
if it had been frosted. There were two kinds of these specimens, some 




BOTTLE AND GOBLET. 



WONDERS IN VENETIAN GLASS. 



49 



of them simply crackened or roughened in colorless glass, while others 
were crusted with minute bits or particles of glass in different colors. 
When one of these articles is held in the sunhght the effect is very 
brilliant, and suggests the kaleidoscope. 

" They showed us groups of figures and statuettes in enamelled 
glass, and we saw a vast number of lamps, beads, frames, and chande- 
liers, till we were almost bewildered by their number and variety. 
Some of the prettiest things we saw were engraved with the points of 




FANCY GLASSES WITH COLORED HANDLES. 



diamonds, and they told us that this form of work was invented in the 
seventeenth century. They showed us a specimen of the work of one 
of the old artists in this line, w^ith delicate patterns of lace so fine that 
a magnifying -glass was needed to take in all their beauties. 

" When the Kepublic fell to pieces — in the capture of Yenice by the 
French, near the end of the last century — the glass industry of Murano 
ceased almost entirely. Some attempts were made to revive it during 
the first half of the present century, but nothing of consequence was 
accomplished until about thirty years ago, when a company was formed 
with sufficient capital to begin work on a reasonably extensive scale. 
Judging from what we have seen, the modern glass-works have made 
splendid progress in the revival of what at one time seemed to be a 
lost art. It takes a good judge to detect the difference. 



50 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

"We made several purchases of cups, vases, beads, and various 
kinds of ornaments, and saw them carefully packed for shipment to 
America. We hope and believe they will arrive safely, and we shall 
take great pleasure in showing them to our friends when we reach 
home and explaining their beauties and peculiarities." 

Several days were passed very pleasantly at Venice, and then our 
friends took their departure in the direction of Yerona. The distance 
between the two cities is a trifle over seventy miles, and the journey 
by railway is accomplished in from three to four hours, according to 
the rapidity of the train. When they reached the railway station at 
Venice, Mrs. Bassett was surprised to find that the baggage of the 
party was taken into the custom-house for examination. 

" I don't understand this," said she. " We have had our baggage 
examined a good many times when we arrived at European cities, but 
how does it happen that it is examined on our departure. They didn't 
look at it at all when we arrived." 

"Oh," replied Frank, "that is easily explained. Venice is a free 
port, and consequently there is no occasion for the examination of 
baggage on arrival. We are going now into a part of Italy where the 
rules of the custom-house prevail, and therefore the ofiicials wish to 
look through our trunks, in order to make sure that we are carrjang no 
goods liable to duty and thus diminishing the national revenue." 

" Oh, I understand now," said Mrs. Bassett. " There are no tariffs- 
on coming into Venice or going out of it by sea to foreign countries^ 
but there are duties upon goods going from here by land." 

" That's it exactly," replied Frank. " The port of Venice resembles 
Malta, Gibraltar, and some other of the free ports of the world. It was 
made a free port in order to encourage commerce, and also to preserve 
one of the ancient rights of the city in the time of its independence." 

The examination was not at all rigid. Some of the trunks were 
opened sufficiently to allow the officials to glance at their contents,, 
while others were not opened at all. The customs authorities through- 
out the Continent generally have learned by experience that parties of 
tourists are not likely to engage in smuggling, and the few dutiable ob- 
jects they may have purchased for their individual use are not Avorthy 
of serious consideration in nineteen cases out of twenty. 

The train crossed the long bridge which was mentioned at the be- 
ginning of our narrative, and speedily reached the main-land. The first 
station of consequence on the railway was the ancient tow^n of Padua, 
which is called Padova bv the Italians. Mrs. Bassett asked if Padua 



AT PADUA. 



51 



was famous for anything, whereupon Frank said it was a town of great 
antiquity, as it traced its origin, by tradition at least, to a brother-in-law 
of Priam, King of Troy. It was the wealthiest town in N"orthern Italy 
during the reign of Augustus, and 
was formerly more prosperous 
than at present. At the begin- 
ning of the fifteenth century it 




^^^pu. 



AT THE PUBLIC WELL. -MORNING SCENE IN VENICE. 

placed itself under the protection of Venice, and adhered to the Ee^ 
pubhc untd the dissolution of the latter and the loss of all its posses- 
sions at the end of the eighteenth century. 

Frank further said there was a university founded at Padua by the 



52 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



Emperor Ferdinand II., and that it had been famous down to the pres- 
ent day, and is still in a state of prosperity. 

^' Padua," said Fred, " contains a famous church, Avhich is known as 
San Antonio ; it covers more ground than the Church of St. Mark at 
Yenice, and was begun in the thirteenth century, but not completed until 
the fourteenth. The bones of St. Anthony of Padua are preserved in 
this church, and are the object of constant adoration on the part of the 
faithful. There are several other churches in Padua," he continued, 
" but I do not think it is worth our while to stop and examine them." 

As he concluded the train continued its course, stopping briefly at 
Yicenza, and then continuing to Verona. As they left Yicenza, Mary 
suggested to Fred that she was afraid he had forgotten something. 
" I don't think I have. What is it that I hav^e forgotten ?" 
'' Why," she answered, " here we have been several days in Italy, 
and you have not told us anything about the Government of the 
country and who compose it." 

" Yes, that is true," Fred answered. '' I 
owe you an apology for my neglect, and 
will tell you something on the subject at 
once if you will listen." 

" In some respects Italy is a paradox," 
said Fred. " It is one of the oldest countries 
of Europe, and, as a kingdom, one of the 
newest. Twenty-five hundred years before 
the Christian era Italy was known as Sa. 
turnia, and was fabled to have been ruled 
by Saturn during the Golden Age. It Avas 
invaded by the Pelasgians from Greece, and 
the union of these invaders with the aborig- 
inal races formed the Latin race, which to- 
day occupies the principal portion of South- 
ern Europe. 
" The early accounts of the country are mixed up with a great deal 
of fable, and from the year 753 e.g., when Kome was founded, the his- 
tory of Italy seems to have been absorbed in that of Kome. For many 
hundred years Italy was desolated by internal and external wars, and 
it was divided several times among the then powerful and turbulent 
countries of Germany, Spain, and France." 

" Did those countries possess Italy all at the same time ?" Mary 
asked, with an astonished look. 




ITALIAN COAT OF ARMS. 



SCRAPS OF ITALIAN HISTORY. 



53 



"There were times,'' replied Fred, "when each one of them held 
some portion of the country; but Spain predominated in Italy during 
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and was succeeded in power by 
Austria at the beginning of the eighteenth century. In 1Y97-98 the 
victories of Napoleon Bonaparte put the government of Italy into the 




MARTYRDOM OF ST. GEORGE. — [Fresco In the Church of St. Anthony of Padua.] 



hands of the French, but the Austrians re-established their rule after 
the general peace of the memorable year 1814." 

" Properly speaking, then," said Mary, " there was no kingdom of 
Italy at that time, the name of Italy being applied to the whole penin- 
sula, just as the peninsula comprising Norway and Sweden is known as 
Scandinavia, though there's really no such country." 

" Yes, that's exactly the case," said Fred, with an encouraging nod ; 
"there was no kingdom of Italy down to 1859. There were the king- 
doms of Sardinia and Naples, and the Grand-duchies and Duchies of 
Piedmont, Lombardy, Tuscany, Modena, and Parma; while in the 



54 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 




FRANCESCO CRISPI, MINISTER 
THE INTERIOR. 



middle of the peninsula, with Eome as its centre, were the Papal 

States, which were governed by the Pope." 

" How did the union of all these kingdoms 
and duchies and principalities come about ?" 
queried Mary, with interest. 

"Well, it's rather a long story," replied 
Fred; "but the beginning of the movement 
dates to the time of the Crimean War. 
France and England, as you know, were at 
war with Russia. Sardinia sent a contingent 
of troops to fight on the side of the allied 
forces of French and English. It was not a 
very large contingent ; but the sending of it 
was a shrewd political move on the part of 
Count Cavour, who was then Prime-minister 
of Sardinia. He foresaw that, in consequence 
of sending these troops, the end of the war 
would result in bringing Sardinia into the circle 
of nations, and give it a voice in settling the 

terms of the treaty. The result was exactly as he had anticipated, and 

Sardinia, for the first time, attained a promi- 
nent position among the nations of Europe." 
" Yes," said Mary ; " I have read about 

Count Cavour. He was a very wise and 

able statesman, was he not ?" 

" He was, indeed," said Fred, " one of 

the ablest statesmen that Europe has ever 

known. He was the son of a merchant of 

Nice, and his mother was a Swiss, or a 

French lady, of Geneva. In his younger 

days he Avas associated with his father in 

the grain trade, and spent several years in 

foreign travel. There was an insurrection 

in Lombardy and Venice in 1848 and 1849 

against the Austrian rule; the insurgents 

were defeated, and the Austrian yoke was 

made more burdensome than it had ever 

been before. At that time Count Cavour was publishing a Liberal 

paper, and he defended the cause of Italian independence in his speeches 

and editorial articles. Naturally he became very popular through his 




AGOSTINO DEPRETIS, MINISTER OF WAR. 



56 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



course: he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1849, and imme- 
diately obtained political prominence in Italy and elsewhere. 

" After the close of the war with Eussia, Count Cavour devoted him- 
self to the liberation and unity of Italy, and he induced France to come^ 




COUNT CAVOUR. 



to the aid of Sardinia in 1859 in a war against Austria. The war re- 
sulted in the complete defeat of the Austrians and the annexation of 
Lombardy, Tuscany, Parma, and Modena to Sardinia. In the following 
year (1860) Sicily and Naples were liberated mainly through the efforts- 
of Garibaldi, and were united with Sardinia to form the Kingdom of 
Italy. There you have the story, and it illustrates what I told you at 
the start : that Italy, though one of the oldest countries of Europe, is- 
one of its newest kingdoms." 



ORIGIN OF THE KINGDOM OF ITALY. 



57 



" The Papal States did not become part of the Kingdom of Italy at 
that time, did they?" Mary asked, as Fred paused. 

" No ; not until ten years later," Fred replied. '' It was in October, 
18Y0, that the Papal Territories were absorbed into the kingdom, all ex- 




CODRT OP THE TOWN-HALL, TERONA. 



ceptmg the Vatican at Eome, which still remains under the exclusive 
control of the Pope. The capital is now at Kome ; previous to the 
union with the Papal States it was at Florence, and before that, for a 
short time after the formation of the kingdom, it was at Turin." 



58 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

" What kind of a Government do you call that of Italy ?" Mrs. Bas- 
sett asked. She had been listening intently to the conversation. 

" The Government of Italy is a limited monarchy," Fred responded. 
" The Constitution is an expansion of that which was granted in 1848 by 
King Charles Albert of Sardinia to his subjects. The executive power 
belongs exclusively to the King, and is exercised by him through re- 
sponsible ministers. The legislative authority rests conjointly in the 
King and Parliament. The Parliament consists of two Houses like the 
Parhament of Great Britain or the Congress of the United States. 

" The Upper House is called the Senato^ or Senate, and it is com- 
posed of princes of the Royal House, and others who are nominated by 
the King for life. The Lower House is called the Camera de' Deputati, or 
Chamber of Deputies, and the members are elected by the people, just 
as the members of the Lower House of Congress in the United States 
are elected by the people. Each of the Chambers has the right of intro- 
ducing new bills the same as the Government, but all money biUs must 
originate in the Chamber of Deputies. The sittings of both Chambers 
are open to the public. The members of the Lower House are elected 
for terms of ^yq years. The King has the power to dissolve the House 
at any time, but he must order a new election and a new meeting of the 
Chamber within four months, and he is also required to call the Parlia- 
ment together annually, even though he may not wish it." 

" What salaries do the members of the Senate and the Chamber of 
Deputies receive ?" was the next question ; it was propounded by Mary. 

" They receive no salary whatever," Fred replied, " except that they 
may travel free on railways and steamboats. The members of the 
Upper House must be persons of prominence in science, literature, or 
any other pursuit which tends to the benefit of the nation, or they 
must pay taxes to the annual amount of £120 sterling, or $600. There 
is no limit to the number of members in the Senate, the King being al- 
lowed to nominate as many as he chooses, provided they come within 
the requirements of the law. The number of Deputies is one to every 
57,000 of the population. No salaried Government oflficial can be elect- 
ed to the position of Deputy ; and the law also excludes all persons or- 
dained for the priesthood and filling clerical charges, or receiving pay 
from the Government. Officers in the Army and IN'avy, and various 
other classes of functionaries high in office, may be elected, but their 
number must never be more than forty. The number of Deputies varies 
according to the population. For several years it has exceeded five 
hundred, and there are about three hundred and forty Senators." 



CABINET OF THE KING OF ITALY. 



59 



" How does the King exercise the executive power ?" was the ques- 
tion which naturally followed the foregoing statement. 

" He has a ministry, divided into eleven departments," the youth 
answered. '' The highest officer of his ministry is the President of the 
Council and Minister of the Interior. Then come the ministers in the 




VERONA FROM PONTE NUOVO. 



following order, according to their rank : Foreign Affairs, Finance, 
Treasury, Justice and Keligious Affairs, War and Marine ; and then the 
Ministers of Commerce, Industry, and Agriculture, of Public Instruc- 
tion, of Public Works, and of Posts and Telegraphs." 

Fred was about to say something concerning local government in 
Italy. He had mentioned the circumstance that the two principal 
elective local administrative bodies are the Communal Councils and the 
Provincial Councils ; but suddenly Frank reminded him that they were 
approaching Yerona, the domes of the churches being in sight. 

"We ought to know a little about this city before we enter it," 
said Frank. 

" Yery well," replied Fred ; " suppose you tell us." 

" I shall tell you very briefly," responded his cousin, " as our time 



60 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

is short, and we shall soon be at the railway station. According to his- 
tory, Yerona was founded by the Gauls or Etruscans, and a great battle 
was fought here one hundred and one years before the Christian era. 
The emperor Titus built the amphitheatre in the year 82, and the city 
and surrounding country have been the scene of many battles." 

" Yes," said Mary, slyly glancing at the book she held in her hand, 
and concealed by a handkerchief. " Yerona was taken by Constantine 
in 312, and it was here that Theodoric defeated Odoacer in 489 ; 
Charlemagne captured Yerona in 774; there were several battles here 
in the next six or seven hundred years, and the city was taken by the 
Yenetians in 1405. They held it with occasional intermissions until it 
was captured by the French in 1796, and there have been several battles 
here in modern times. We'll learn about them later ; the train is slowino* 
up, and we must be ready to step to the platform when it stops." 

The railway station at Yerona is outside the city, and our friends 
were interested in looking at the walls as they passed through the 
massive gateway leading to the interior. Frank explained to his 
mother that Yerona was one of the most important fortified towns in 
JSTorthern Italy, and, next to Yenice, it was the most populous in the 
province of Yenetia. He said it belonged to the Quadrilateral, or 
Quadrangle, which had become famous in the wars that had been 
fought in this vicinity in modern times. 

" I remember reading something once in an American newspaper 
about the Quadrilateral, and the elbows of the Mincio," Mrs. Bassett 
answered, " but cannot remember exactly what it was." 

"The Quadrilateral consists of four strong fortresses," Frank ex- 
plained, " which were held for a long time by the Austrians, and sur- 
rendered to the Italians in 1866, after the war in which Austria was 
so severely defeated by Germany and Italy. The fortresses of the 
Quadrilateral are Peschiera, on an island in the Mincio ; Mantua, on the 
same river ; and Yerona and Legnago, which are both on the Adige. 
These four cities, with their forts, form the Quadrilateral, or Quad- 
rangle, of which you read in the paper mentioned. 

" There is the Adige, I suppose," said Mrs. Bassett, pointing to the 
river which they had crossed while Frank was speaking. 

" Yes," he replied ; " that is the river which has played a very promi- 
nent part in the wars that have devastated this part of Italy. Several 
times it has prevented battles because of the hesitation of generals to 
cross it, and on other occasions the struggles for the possession of its 
banks have led to great bloodshed." 



CHAPTER lY. 

THE ARENA AT YERONA ; ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT CONDITION ; USES THAT 
ARE MADE OF IT.— THE LOTTERY IN ITALY.— THE TOMBS OF THE SCALIGERS. 
—HISTORY OF THE DELLA SCALA FAMILY.— MARY'S QUESTION.— DANTE ; HIS 
LIFE AT VERONA; MONUMENT TO HIS MEMORY; SKETCH OF HIS CAREER.— 
ROMEO AND JULIET; JULIET'S TOMB; THE HOUSE OF THE CAPULETS; STORY 
OF JULIET.— DA PORTA AND HIS NARRATIYE.— A SENTIMENTAL VISIT.— THE 
PIAZZA DELL'ERBE.— BUILDING OF THE MUNICIPIO.— CATHEDRAL AND CHURCH 
OF SAN ZENO; TITIAN'S PAINTING; ST. ZENO'S SERMONS.— PAUL VERONESE 
AND HIS HISTORY.— EXCURSION TO THE BATTLE-FIELD OF CUSTOZZA.— VILLA- 
FRANC A AND SOLFERINO.— TREATY OF ZURICH. 



MES. BASSETT asked what 
was to be seen in Yerona, 
and how long it was expected 
they would remain there. 

"As to the length of our stay," 
said Frank, " I cannot say exactly. 
Many travellers come here and see 
the sights of the place in one day, 
but, as Ave are not in a great hurry, 
we will probably remain longer. 
One of the first things to look at 
is the Amphitheatre, or Arena, as 
it is called here, w^hich stands in 
the principal square ; it is not very 
far from the hotel, and w^e will 
not fail to visit it as soon as you 
Avish after our arrival." 

"Yery well," was the reply. 
" Mary and I will meet you in the 
parlor as soon as we have shaken 
off the dust of the journey from 
Yenice, and brushed up a bit." 

The party was not long in as- 





STATUE OF DANTE, 



62 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



sembling. Frank had already consulted the map in his guide-book, and 
at once led the way to the Arena. As they entered the square where 
it is situated, Mrs. Bassett and her daughter made an exclamation of 

surprise. The view burst upon 

; them suddenly ; they were not 

prepared for the magnificence 
of the structure, which seemed 
much larger than it really is, 
for the reason that it is sur- 
rounded by modern buildings 
of very ordinary height. 

The party walked slowly 
around on the outside of the 
stone arches, and Mrs. Bassett 
said she was half inclined to 
go away without entering the 
structure, lest it might appear 
less grand on a closer ac- 
quaintance. She wished to 
know the extent of the Am- 
phitheatre, whereupon Frank 
read from the guide-book the 
figures showing its dimen- 
sions, as follows: 

"It is 182 yards long by 
186 in width, and its circum- 
ference is 528 yards. The top 
of the highest part of the wall 
is 106 feet from the ground. 
On the outside there are 72 
arcades ; these arcades are 
rented for shops, and bring a 
considerable revenue to the 
city. The position in the 
public square makes it an ex- 
cellent one for trade." 
While they stood looking at the Amphitheatre the sound of shouting 
came from the inside, and soon crowds of people emerged into the square. 
Mrs. Bassett thought there must have been a political meeting or a 
circus, and she asked Frank to ascertain the cause of the excitement. 




A STREET IN VERONA. 



IN THE ARENA. 



63 



Frank inquired at one of the shops, and found that the affair which 
brought the people together was nothing more than the drawing of a 
lottery. Then he explained to his mother that the lottery in Italy is a 
Government institution, from which a considerable revenue is derived. 

" The Italians," said he, " are liberal patrons of the lottery, and you 
find that the tickets are purchased by all classes of people. They are 
sold in the tobacco-shops and other places, and if the revenue derived 
from the lotteries were taken 
away it would make a serious de- 
ficiency in the resources of the 
kingdom. Perhaps I will have 
something more to tell you about 
Italian lotteries later in our jour- 
ney ; for the present we will dis- 
miss the subject, and visit the in- 
terior of the Arena as soon as the 
crowd has left it." 

They found that the Arena, or 
the clear space inside it, was 240 
feet long by about 150 feet in 
width. Around this level space 
there were 45 tiers of steps, each 
tier being 18 inches high and 26 
inches wide, of gray marble. The 
calculation is that 25,000 specta- 
tors could sit in the Arena, and 
70,000 more could stand ; it could 
easily hold the entire population 
of Yerona at the present time. 
Whether it was ever crowded so 
that applicants for places were 

turned away, history does not tell us. The Arena was built towards 
the end of the first century, and is supposed to have been used for 
gladiatorial fights, combats of wild beasts with each other or with 
men, and for the slaughter of Christian martyrs, in the same way as 
the Colosseum at Eome was used. The edifice is in a fairly good state 
of preservation, though the greater part of the external wall has been 
carried away for building purposes. The Arena of Yerona is better 
preserved than is the Colosseum at Eome, but not as well preserved 
as the famous Amphitheatre at Mmes, in France. 




DANTE. 



64 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

When the curiosity of the strangers regarding the Arena was satis- 
fied, Frank suggested that they would visit the tombs of the Scahgers, 
whereupon Mrs. Bassett asked who the Scaligers were. 

" They were a celebrated family who were, for more than a century, 
Presidents of the Eepublic of Yerona," Frank answered. '' The most 
noted member of the family was Can Francesco della Scala, who was 
born about 1290 ; he died in 1329, having been ruler over Verona for 
nearly twenty years. History records that he was a liberal patron of 
literature and the fine arts, and his name was celebrated by the poet 
Dante, who was hospitably received at his court." 

" Certainly we ought to see his tomb," said Mrs. Bassett. " He de- 
serves a fine one, and probably received it." 

" He made sure that he would have a fine monument," replied Frank, 
" because he had it made during his lifetime by one of the celebrated 
sculptors of the period. Here it is." 

As Frank spoke the party found itself in front of a handsome monu- 
ment, which consisted of a sarcophagus resting on a pedestal supported 
by columns ; over it rose a canopy crowned with an equestrian statue 
of the prince who was supposed to be at rest there. On the square col- 
umns, in the middle of the structure, are six Christian heroes, while in 
niches higher up are symbolized the Christian virtues. Close by is a 
monument of another member of the family, which also has a sar- 
€ophagus with a canopy, and an equestrian statue. Then there are sev- 
eral monuments of the same general character, one of them being in 
memory of Can Grande II., who was assassinated in the public streets 
of Yerona by his brother, so history tells us. 

Mary asked if the inscription on the monument was anything like the 
one that was made upon a tombstone somewhere in the United States 

to the effect, " This monument was erected to the memory of , 

who was shot, as a mark of affection, by his brother." 

Frank said he thought the builders of the memorial which they 
were contemplating did not deem it wise to comment about the affair, 
as the surviving brother was a man of power and likely to be sensitive 
on the subject ; besides, it was a family matter, which did not concern 
outsiders, or, at least, he was likely to so regard it. 

" If you wish to see any more monuments of the Scaligers," said 
Frank, " we will find them in the church close by, where there is the 
sarcophagus and equestrian statue of Can Grande I., and other memo- 
rials of the family that made itself so famous." 

Mrs. Bassett thought that they had enough Scaligers to go around, 



THE POET DANTE. 



65 



and would not need any more at present. Mary suggested that she 
would like some photographs of the monuments, and these were readily 
procured in a shop close by. As they walked away, Mary recalled to 
Frank his mention of 
the poet Dante, and 
asked if he was a na- 
tive of Yerona. 

"I cannot answer 
that question," said 
Frank ; " perhaps Fred 
can tell us. How was 
it, Fred?" 

"Dante was not a 
native of Yerona," re- 
plied Fred, "but of 
Florence, where he was 
born in May, 1265. 
He is considered by 
the critics the greatest 
poetical genius of his 
time, and, according to 
history, he was in- 
structed in liberal 
studies and arts by the 
eminent scholars of his 
day, and was well- 
versed in Latin, Greek, 
and theology. He is 
said to have been very 
skilful in music, paint- 
ing, and sculpture ; but 
none of his work in 
those lines of art has 
descended to us. Like 

most poets, not only of Italy but of other countries, he fell in love, 
and some of his earlier poems are devoted to that subject. In his case, 
as in that of others, 'the course of true love did not run smooth,' as 
the lady is said to have married somebody else, or, at all events, she did 
not marry him; but this circumstance did not keep him out of matri- 
mony. He became united to a lady of noble family named Donati ; but 




TOMB OF CAN SIGNORIO. 



m THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

the parties were so uncongenial that they found that their married life 
was happiest when they lived apart. She complained that he was very 
unsocial, which has also been said of other poets." 

" He certainly didn't have a cheerful appearance, if his portrait does 
him justice," Mrs. Bassett remarked. 

" Haven't I read somewhere that Dante was at one time a soldier ?" 
Mary asked, at the first pause in the conversation. 

" Quite likely you have read so," replied Fred, " for such was the 
case. At that time there was a bitter feud between the Guelphs and 
Ghibellines. Dante's family were Guelphs, and he espoused their cause 
with the same ardor that he fell in love, and he fought in their behalf 
on several battle-fields. Then he was sent on political missions to for- 
eign courts, and afterwards he was elected to the high office of Prior 
of Florence. The Guelph party got into quarrels among themselves, 
and Dante espoused the wrong cause, or, at all events, the losing one. 
AVhen the other side was victorious he was condemned to perpetual 
banishment, with the loss of all his estates; and from that time he wan- 
dered about without any home, and suffered greatly from poverty in 
addition to his other troubles." 

" He came to Yerona, where he was hospitably received and kindly 
treated," Fred continued. " He lived here several years at the court of 
Can Grande, and is said to have died at Kavenna in 1331. His poetical 
works have been translated into all the languages of Europe. His 
greatest poem is said to be the ' Divina Commedia,' and there is an ex- 
cellent version of it in English, which we owe to the pen of our famous 
American poet, Longfellow." 

'' Thank you ever so much," said Mrs. Bassett. " I have learned 
more about Dante from what you have said than I ever knew before." 

" Well," replied Fred, '' we will learn a little more of him, because 
his statue is in Yerona ; and here it is." While he was talking Fred had 
slowly led the way to the centre of the square Avhere the statue stands. 
The party contemplated it from several points of view, and Mrs. Bassett 
wondered whether the likeness was correct. 

" ' To consider thus were to consider too curiously,' " Fred replied, 
quoting from " Hamlet." " Dante lived long before the days of the pho- 
tograph ; and, as he was poor, and had not become famous until long 
after his death, it is quite possible that the sculptor relied upon his 
imagination for the face that we see upon the statue." 

" While we are on poetical and sentimental subjects, I want to ask 
about Juliet's tomb," said Mary. " You know, the story on which 




TOMB OP CAN MASTINO II. 



Shakespeare's play of ' Eomeo and Juliet ' is founded is located at Ye- 
rona, and I believe they have Juliet's tomb on exhibition." 

" Yes," said Frank ; " the play of ' Komeo and Juliet ' is located at 
Yerona, and, what is more, it is founded upon events that actually oc- 
curred here. The romance was written about the year 1520 by an Ital- 



68 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



ian author named Luigi da Porta, and not long afterwards another 
story of the same sort was pubhshed from the pen of another author. 
Da Porta tells in his preface that while he was serving as a soldier in 
the army one of his companions, a native of Yerona, told him the storv, 
and he thought it ought to be written down and preserved. He tells 
how the lovers met at Capulet's house, and how Juliet observed the 

youthful Komeo 
among the guests. 
His beauty pene- 
trated her heart ; and 
she declared that at 
the first encounter 
of their eyes she was 
beside herself. Then 
the author re- 
lates that dur- 
ing the torch- 
dance, in 
which all are 
standing in a 
circle and take 
hold of hands, 
Romeo hap- 
pened to be 
next to Juliet, 
who had on 
the other side 
of her a youth 
^vhose hands 
were alwaj^s 
cold, no less in 
July than they were in January. 

'' Juliet opened the conversation 
by expressing her delight that Mr. 
Romeo was at her side. He was some- 
what astonished at the intimation, and asked 
why it was. She answered that he was 
keeping her left hand warm, while the young man on the other side 
Avas freezing her right one. He accepted the hint to say something 
nice ; the lady smiled, and then, lest their conversation might excite 




STATUE OF CAN GRANDE. 



ROMEO AND JULIET MAKING LOVE. 



69 



remark, she pretended to be looking the other way. Her final remark 
was, ' I swear to you, Komeo, by my faith, there is not a maiden here 




THE ARENA. 



who seems to me to compare with you for beauty ;' whereupon Komeo 
replied, ' Such as I am, if it do not displease you, I will be the faithful 
slave of your loveliness.' And then they separated." 

" That was a very good beginning for a love-story," said Mrs. Bas- 
sett. " Iso wonder Komeo and Juliet became so very sweet to each 
other after such a commencement." 

" Yes," said Frank, '' the narrative goes on to say that from that 
time on ' these two, being equally enamoured, and bearing each other's 
name and image in their hearts, began to look for each other — now in 
church, noAV at the window, neither being content without the sight of 
the other.' Da Porta was a good writer." 

" Poor things !" remarked Mary ; " what a lot of anxious moments 
they must have had ! It was very severe upon Komeo, staying out at 
nights when the winter winds were blowing and sweeping along the 
front of Juliet's house. I wonder if it was in winter or in summer 
when the two fell so very ardently in love ?" 

'' Oh, it was in the winter," said Frank, " because Da Porta makes 



70 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



the balcony scene take place on the street side of the Capulets' house, 
and not in the garden, as Shakespeare does ; and he has it happen one 
evening when a heavy snow was falling, so as to make it as disagreeable 
as possible for Komeo." 

" Do you think the story is really true ?" queried Mrs. Bassett. 
" That is a leading question, which I am not prepared to answer cat- 
egorically," Frank replied, with an evasive air. 

" Of course it must be true," exclaimed Mary. " This is Yerona, and 
it contains Juliet's tomb ; the novelist says that this actually happened, 
and we can see the house where Friar Laurence lived. I've heard so." 
" Oh yes," said Frank ; "and now we will go and see Juliet's tomb." 
It is proper to say that the feminine portion of the party was some- 
what disappointed at the sight. They went to a side street, which was 
very unpretending in appearance, and, by ringing the bell at a gate, ob- 
tained admission to a garden. They were led through a long corridor, and 

then among cabbages 
and other vegetable 
„ productions, till they 

' reached an arcade built 

against the wall of an 
old Franciscan con- 
vent. In this arcade 
there was a long and 
open trough of stone, 
such as is used in Italy 
for washing linen or 
watering horses. The 
authenticity of the 
tomb rests on doubtful 
authority, the claim to 
its genuineness being 
that Friar Laurence 
lived in the convent. 
The probability is that Juliet's real tomb or coffin was cut up long 
ago, and converted into necklaces and other things to be worn by ro- 
mantic ladies and gentlemen. The custodian of the place refused to 
guarantee that the tomb was the real original one, and changed the 
subject by calling attention to several withered bouquets which were 
left there by ladies like themselves — that is to say, they were foreign- 
ers. He said that there was one lady — he thought she was French or 





Juliet's tomb. 



MARKET-PLACE OF VERONA. 71 

German — who came there a week before, and spent at least an hour in 
crying over the tomb and the story of Juliet. 

Mary suggested that they would reserve their crying to a later day, 
or, at least, until she had seen Juliet's house. They left the place, and 
were taken to a building which is a very ordinary tavern at the present 
time. That it was the house of the Capulets is indicated by the follow- 
ing inscription upon a tablet let into the wall near the doorway : 

QUESTS FURONO LE CASE 

DEI CAPULETI 
ONDE USCI LA GIULIETTA 
PER CUI 
TANTO PIANSERO I CUORI GENTILI 
E I POETI CANTARON. 

"These were the mansions of the Capulets, where lived Juliet, whose fate has been 
lamented by so many gentle hearts, and sung by so many poets." 

When our friends had disposed of the romantic story of " Romeo 
and Juliet " they continued their sight-seeing, giving their attention to 
the streets and squares of Yerona. They found the squares full of inter- 
est, and were inclined to linger in them to study the great variety of 
sights that they presented. 

Mrs. Bassett suggested that she would like to see one of the market- 
places of Yerona, and accordingly the party took its way to the Piazza 
dell'Erbe, which is a square surrounded by picturesque buildings, nearly 
all of them very ancient. At one end of the square is a marble column, 
on which, for a long time previous to 1797, there was a statue of the 
Lion of St. Mark, to indicate the adhesion of Yerona to the Eepublic 
of Yenice. When the Republic was broken up the lion was removed, 
and has not 3^et been restored to its place. 

There was a good deal of trade going on in the square in fruits and 
vegetables, the venders being seated in many instances under great 
umbrellas to protect them from the heat of the sun. Some of the 
vegetable-peddlers were fast asleep, and our friends watched one of them 
who slumbered steadily on until the time came for closing the traffic 
for the day and removing the booth and umbrellas. The square was 
quite a busy one, and seemed in marked contrast to the general sleepy 
aspect of the town and the people who live there. 

Several of the houses surrounding the Piazza dell'Erbe are adorned 
with external frescos, in the style which is said to have originated at 



72 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

Yerona. Some of these frescos have been recently restored, and pre- 
sented a very attractive appearance. Frank undertook to sketch one of 
them, but speedily abandoned the effort when Mary told him that he 
could purchase photographs at a shop close by. 

There is a fountain in the square adorned with the statue of Yerona, 
part of the fountain being very old and the rest modern. In the centre 
of the square is a raised platform covered with a canopy. Mrs. Bassett 
thought it was a music-stand, but Frank explained that it was called the 
Tribuna, and was anciently used as a seat of justice, the square itself 
being the forum where the people assembled on public occasions, either 
to listen to addresses concerning the affairs of state, to be present at 
trials, or to decide upon measures affecting the general welfare. 

A smaller square, and perhaps a more imposing one, is the Piazza dei 
Signori, which is connected with the one just described by a very short 
street that passes close to a tower 330 feet in height. This is known 
as tlie Tower of the Municipio, and by the side of it is the building of 
the Municipio, or town -hall, which has a very interesting court -yard. 
According to an inscription on the wall the Municipio Tvas founded in 
1123. Diagonally opposite is the Palace of the Council, which was 
erected at the beginning of the sixteenth century, and is adorned wath 
the statues of men who were celebrated in the history of the city. This 
is the square which contains the statue of Dante, already mentioned. 
Some attempts have been made at modernizing a small portion of the 
buildings surrounding the square ; but these attempts are not generally 
regarded with favor, as it is very properly believed they will destroy 
the picturesqueness of the place. 

When the strangers had satisfied their curiosity regarding the streets 
of Yerona, they visited some of its churches, and all agreed that Yerona 
has reason to be proud of its sacred edifices. We can only mention 
them briefly, and w411 say in this connection that there was a difference 
of opinion among the members of the party as to w^hich of the churches 
possessed the greatest interest. Mrs. Bassett was inclined to favor the 
cathedral, which is a magnificent Gothic structure of the fourteenth cen- 
tury, with a choir and fa§ade of the twelfth century. There is a wonder- 
ful picture by Titian in the cathedral, and it fascinated the visitors so 
that they would gladly have spent an entire afternoon in front of it. 
The portal of the building is a magnificent one, and behind the columns 
of it are statues of Roland and Oliver, the two paladins of Charlemagne. 

Mary readily admitted the magnificence of the cathedral and the 
loveliness of Titian's painting, but she was greatly impressed with the 



CHURCH OF SAN ZENO. 



73 



Church of San Zeno, which is certainly worthy of high admiration. It 
covers a large extent of ground fronting on a market square, and is 
said to have been begun in the twelfth century, and finished in the 
thirteenth. The portal projects from the body of the church, and is 
adorned with reliefs of scriptural subjects from the creation of the 
human race to the crucifixion on Calvary. There are representations 
from the life of St. Zeno, and also the months of the year, begin- 




THE PIAZZA DELL'ERBE. 



ning with March. The doors are massive and of the same antiquity as 
the portal. The interior is adorned with many statues and frescos, 
some of them very old and in a bad state of repair. They date from 
the twelfth and fourteenth centuries, and at every step the visitor is 
reminded of the great antiquity of the edifice. 

The crypt is very large, occupying the entire width of the church. 
It contains the tomb of St. Zeno, and is adorned with many ancient 
frescos and sculptures. The roof of the crypt is supported by numer- 
ous columns, and some of them bear the names of the sculptors. 

After our friends came out of the crypt, and were looking at the 



74 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

ornamentation of the choir, Mrs. Bassett called attention to a painted 
marble figure of the saint holding his episcopal staff, and also a fishing- 
rod with a silver fish. She thought a fishing-rod was a very unusual 
article for a saint to have in his possession. 

" Oh, I can explain that," said Mary. " Saint Zeno was the patron 
saint of fishermen. He was Bishop of Yerona during the fourth cen- 
tury, and is commended for his great charity to the poor. According 
to history, he died about the year 380, leaving many sermons in manu- 
script. These sermons were printed in the sixteenth century, and we 
can see copies of the original edition in the Museum of Yerona." 

Mrs. Bassett said she would like to look at the sermons, but Frank 
explained that she would not be likely to find them very interesting as 
they were printed in Latin, and he was not aware that they had been 
rendered into English. So the subject was dropped and the party con- 
tinued its tour of the churches, afterwards going to the Museum, where 
they remained only a short time, as they intended to visit it again. 

The Museum contains a great many casts and antiquities from exca- 
vations made in and about Yerona, together with many weapons, 
statues, and other things of former days. There is a large picture- 
gallery, which contains principally the Avorks of Yeronese artists, to- 
gether with paintings by other artists of greater or less celebrity. 
The artist whose works are most numerous is Paolo Yeronese. Our 
friends had already seen many fine specimens of his work in the 
churches and galleries of Yenice, and their interest in him was naturally 
increased during their stay in the Museum at Yerona. One of the first 
questions of Mrs. Bassett was about the history of this artist. 

" I can tell you about him," said Mary, in reply to her mother's 
query. " His real name was Paul Cagliari, but he became known as 
Paul Yeronese, or Paul of Yerona. He was born here about 1530, and 
received lessons in art from his uncle. In the early part of his life he 
went to Yenice, where he was very successful, as we have already seen, 
and especially in the ornamental style, to which he largely devoted him- 
self. He afterwards worked in Kome and other Italian cities. He died 
in 1588, and the number of pictures of various kinds that he left behind 
him show that he must have been very industrious." 

" He was one of the most famous artists of his time," said Fred. 
".John Kuskin, in Modern Painters^ uses these words : ' The sixteenth 
century produced the four greatest painters — that is to say, managers of 
color — that the world has ever seen, namely, Tintoretto, Paul Yeronese, 
Titian, and Correggio.' " 



THE GIUSTI GARDENS. 



75 



From the Museum, Frank led the way to the Giusti Gardens, which 
are very interesting, chiefly on account of the great number of cypress- 
trees that they contain. Some of these trees are upwards of four hun- 
dred years old, and are fully one hundred and twenty feet in height. 
There are some Roman 
antiquities in the gar- 
den, but nothing of 
great consequence. 
N^ext to the cypress- 
trees, the chief interest 
of the place is the fine 
view that is afforded 
from a part of the gar- 
den — Yerona and the 
country about it, and 
also the Alps and the 
distant Apennine 
Mountains are in sight, 
and the towers and 
domes of the old city 
present a very pict- 
uresque jcene. The 
view from the gardens 
was taken about sun- 
set, and after that the 
party returned to the 
hotel, and were suffi- 
ciently fatigued with 
the exertions of the 
day to be willing to 
retire at an early hour. 

The next day be- 
gan with another visit 
to the Museum; and 
then, at the suggestion 
of Frank, an excursion 
was made through the 
surrounding country 
to the battle-field of 
Custozza, where the door of the cathedral. 




76 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

Italians were defeated by the Austrians in 1848, and again in 1866. 
The tour embraced the village or town of Yillafranca, where the pre- 
liminaries of peace between France and Austria were concluded on 
July 11, 1859, after the battle of Solferino. While they were on the 
field of Custozza, Mrs. Bassett asked if it was a very great battle that 
was fought there, referring to the one of 1866. 

" No," said Frank ; " compared to the battle of Solferino the losses 
were not great. The Italians were commanded by their king Victor 
Emmanuel, and the Austrians by the Archduke Albrecht. The Ital- 
ians lost about seven hundred killed and three thousand wounded, while 
the Austrians lost nearly one thousand killed and four thousand 
wounded ; in spite of their loss being the heavier, the Austrians were 
victorious, and the Italians were forced to recross the Eiver Mincio." 

" How does that compare with the battle of Solferino ?" Mary asked. 

" The battle of Solferino," said Frank, " was a much more important 
affair, both in the number of men engaged, the losses of the two 
armies, and the political consequences that followed. On one side 
were the allied French and Sardinian armies, commanded by their re- 
spective sovereigns. The Austrians were commanded by General 
Hess, and the Emperor of Austria was personally on the field. The 
Austrians had been defeated at the battle of Magenta on June 4th. 
After their defeat they gradually retreated across the Mincio, and took 
up a position in the famous Quadrilateral, where they awaited the at- 
tack of their enemies. Owing to the movements of Garibaldi on one 
side and Prince Napoleon and the Tuscans on the other, they recrossed 
the Mincio and assumed the offensive on June 23d. The battle of 
Solferino began early on the twenty - fourth, and lasted fifteen hours. 
The Austrians had the advantage at first, but later in the day the 
French were successful in several movements, so that, after much des- 
perate fighting, the Austrians were compelled to retreat. The loss of 
the Austrians was 630 officers and 17,000 soldiers. The French attrib- 
uted the victory to the skill and bravery of their emperor, and to 
Generals McMahon and Niel. The Austrians would not admit any 
superior generalship on the part of their allies, but credited their defeat 
to the great effectiveness of the rifled cannon of the French." 

'' Well, I am glad they are fighting no battles here in Italy now," 
said Mrs. Bassett. " They ought to be tired enough of war to be will- 
ing to stay at peace for the next hundred years." The rest of the 
party agreed to her suggestion in favor of peace. 

This conversation occurred while they were at luncheon in the little 



THE TREATY OF ZURICH. 



77 



hotel at Yillafranca, the place where the two emperors met and signed 
the preliminary of peace as already stated. Out of this preliminary 
grew the treaty of Zurich, which was begun on the eighth of the fol- 
lowing August, and after many delays was signed on November 10th. 
By this treaty Lombardy was ceded to Sardinia, the formation of an 
Itahan Confederation under the presidency of the Pope was deter- 
mined upon, and the rights of the ex-sovereigns of Tuscany, Modena, 
and Parma were reserved. The formation of the Kingdom of Italy 
shortly afterwards annulled the treaty of Zurich. 




CHURCH OF SAN ZENO. 



CHAPTER Y. 

FROM VERONA TO LAKE GARDA— EUROPEAN AND AMERICAN LAKES.— MRS. BAS- 
SETT'S ANECDOTE. —PESCHIERA; AN IMPORTANT MILITARY POST. — LEMON 
GARDENS OF LAKE GARDA ; HOW THEY ARE PROTECTED IN WINTER.— HILLS 
SURROUNDING THE LAKE. — TOWNS AND VILLAGES. — TREMOSINE AND ITS 
POSITION. — BY STEAMBOAT TO RIVA. — IN AUSTRIA AGAIN. — CONTRASTS OF 
WAR AND PEACE.— OPPRESSIVENESS OF LONG NAMES.— FALL OF THE PONALE. 
—MOONLIGHT EXCURSION ON THE LAKE.— BEGGARY AS AN INDUSTRY.— THE 
FISHES OF LAKE GARDA. — FRED'S OBSERVATIONS.— DOWN THE LAKE. —OLD 
FRIENDS.— STORY-TELLING.— INCIDENTS OF CONTINENTAL STUPIDITY.— DIFFI- 
CULTIES ABOUT BAGGAGE.— BRESCIA, LECCO, AND LAKE COMO. 



DURING the 
evening 
after their return 
from the excur- 
sion, our friends 
had further con- 
versation relative 
to the battles 
that had been 
fought in the vi- 
cinity of Yerona ; 
but none of the 
party preserved 
any record of 
what was said, 
and therefore we 
are unable to re- 
peat it. 

Before they 

retired for the 

night, Frank announced that they would continue their journey next 

morning. Baggage and breakfast were to be ready at eight o'clock, and 

the party would leave the hotel an hour later for the railway station. 







FIREPLACE IN AN ITALIAN INN. 



THE ITALIAN LAKES. 



79 



" I have been reading about Lake Garda," said Mary, " and hope 
that we shall have the pleasure of visiting it." 

"That is exactly where we are going," Frank replied. "We will 
take the train to Peschiera, which is at the foot of the lake, and near the 
point where the Mincio begins its course to the sea by way of the Po." 




FRESCO ON THE OUTSIDE OF AN ITALIAN HOUSE. 



" I shall enjoy the journey on the lake very much," said Mrs. Bas- 
sett. " I have heard a good deal about the Italian lakes, and am sure 
the trip on Lake Garda will be interesting." She asked how long and 
wide the lake was, to which Frank replied, that it w^as thirty-five miles 
in length and seven miles broad at its widest part, with an area of 
something less than 190 square miles. 

" It can't be much of a lake," said Mrs. Bassett. " I suppose that 
the other Italian lakes are much larger." 



80 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

" No," replied Frank ; " Lake Garcia is the largest of all. We are so 
accustomed in America to the dimensions of The Great Lakes lymg 
between the United States and Canada, that any ordinary sheet of 
water in Europe seems to us very small. The largest lake of Europe, 
Lake Ladoga in Kussia, has an area of 6000 square miles ; while Lake 
Superior, the largest body of fresh water in the United States, has an 
area of 32,000 square miles. It woald take six lakes of the size of 
Ladoga, or 168 like Lake Garda, to equal our Lake Superior." 

" Yes, that is true," said Mrs. Bassett. " I can understand now the 
story I heard about an American travelling in Europe whose attention 
was called to a lake. After looking at it a while, he said that he had 
one of the same sort on his place at home, and used it for a bath-tub." 

It is not quite twenty miles from Yerona to Peschiera, and conse- 
quently our friends reached their destination in less than an hour from 
the city of Eomeo and Juliet. Peschiera is a fortified town, and the 
reader will remember that it is one of the points forming the famous 
Quadrilateral. Several battles have been fought here, notably one 
between the Italians and Austrian s in 1848, at which time Peschiera 
Avas taken by the Italians after a very determined defence by the Aus- 
trians. The fortifications of Peschiera are very strong, and cost a great 
deal of money for their construction. 

There was little to be seen in the town, and little time for seeing 
anything, as the omnibus carried the party directly from the railway 
station to the landing-place of the steamboat. In a few minutes after 
embarking, the travellers were under way on their trip up the lake. 
As they left the port, with the prow of the steamboat heading to the 
north, Mrs. Bassett remarked that the country behind them was com- 
paratively level, while that in front w^as mountainous. Frank said that 
the lower and broader part of the lake was bounded by the plains of 
Lombardy, which were flat and w^ell cultivated. The mountainous 
region of the northern half of the lake was by no means barren, as they 
w^ould see in passing along their route. 

Mrs. Bassett called attention to a great number of white pillars or 
monuments, and suggested that probably they were in memory of the 
soldiers who had fallen in the battles fought in the vicinity. Frank 
corrected her mistake by explaining the use of these so-called monu- 
ments, w^hich were not in memory of any one, but were erected for the 
protection of the lemon-trees in winter. 

" Why, how do they protect lemon-trees with such things as those ?" 
queried his mother, with a puzzled air. 



PROTECTING LEMON -TREES. 



81 



"The pillars 
themselves are no 
protection, but 
thev support a 
roof in winter 
which shields the 
trees from frost. 
The pillars vary 
from eight to 
twenty feet in 
height, according 
to the height of 
the trees. Beams 
are laid from one 
pillar to another, 
just as beams are 
laid from the up- 
right piers or col- 
umns of a bridge 
or an elevated rail- 
way. Then from 
one beam to an- 
other the materi- 
als of a roof are 
placed, and the 
trees are in this 
manner saved 
from destruction by tt 
severe cold of winter 

"Do they raise i 
good lemons here as in 

the southern parts of Italy, or in Sicily?" 
Mary asked, as Frank paused in his remarks. 

"That is a question which cannot be an- 
swered by yes or no," was the reply. "The 

fruit is more bitter and more aromatic than that of Sicily, and, side 
by side with the Sicilian fruit, would not bring as high a price. On 
the other hand, it will bear transportation much better and keeps much 
longer. It sells here, so I am told, in ordinary seasons, for three or 
four francs for the hundred lemons ; but very often, when there is a 




LEMON GARDENS, LAKE GARDA. 



82 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

scarcity of fruit in Sicily, the product of the Garda district is worth 
eight or ten francs a hundred." 

" Evidently the industry is a profitable one," said Mary, " or they 
would not take so much pains with it." 

" That is quite true," Frank replied ; " and it is only in consequence 
of the care they take that they are able to secure such good results. 
As I told you, a roof is placed over the gardens by means of these pil- 
lars ; the vertical spaces between the pillars are then closed with frames^ 
of glass, like windows, in order to prevent the winds sweeping through 
beneath the boards and lifting them out of place. So, you see, a con- 
siderable investment of moLey is required to carry on a lemon garden." 

The steamboat touched at several points on the eastern shore of the 
lake, but remained at each landing-place only a few minutes. There 
was monotony, and at the same time variety, in the appearance of the 
shore. The continuous lemon gardens became monotonous after a 
time, but not so the mountains that encircled the upper part of the 
lake. To the left, as they proceeded northward, Frank pointed out the 
narrow promontory of Sermione, which projects about three miles into 
the lake. He said that the poet Catullus once lived there, and com- 
posed his poems in a house on that peninsula. The ruins of the house 
are pointed out to visitors, and also the ruins of a castle which was 
erected there by the Scaligers during the time of their prominence. 

In some places the shores of the lake are precipitous, while in 
others the hills recede at an angle which permits of their ascent by the 
pedestrian. On some of the precipices villages are perched, and here 
and there, high up among the hills, one can see single houses or clusters, 
forming villages clinging against the sides of the mountains, or nestling 
in little valleys. One village, which appeared to be of considerable 
importance, is perched directly on the edge of a precipice, where it 
looks as though an earthquake might easily tumble it into the lake. 

Mrs. Bassett asked the name of this village, and learned that it was 
Tremosine. She thought it would be an interesting place to visit for 
the sake of the view, but concluded that she did not care to go when 
Frank told her that the only way of reaching it was by a zigzag foot- 
path, which leads up the almost perpendicular rock from the shore 
of the lake. lie called her attention to the path, which wound like 
a thread of a screw against the face of the rock, and she emphatically 
declared she would leave Tremosine to take care of itself. 

In some places along the shores of the lake the villages were quite 
close to each other, showing that the country was very well inhabited. 



ON THE AUSTRIAN FRONTIER. 



83 



Beyond the village of Limone, which is important in consequence of its 
lemon and olive gardens, Frank pointed to a column which indicated 
the boundary line between Italy and Austria. 



*s;^v% 











TREMOSINE, BY LAKE GARDA. 



" Oh," said Mrs. Bassett, " I did not know you were going into Aus- 
tria. Will they stop the boat to examine our baggage V 

" ]Sro," was the reply ; '' they don't stop the boat for that purpose. 
We shall continue on to the end of the lake at Kiva, which is an eastern 
town, and there we will find the custom-house occupied by Austrian and 
Italian officials. Baggage is examined there on its arrival from the lake 
by the Austrians, and on its departure for the lake by the Itahans." 



84 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

'' What do they do in time of war, I wonder ? They cannot live 
together at all harmoniously, can the}^ ?" 

" Oh, by no means," replied Frank. " In time of war the custom- 
house and everything pertaining to it is closed, and all regular commu- 
nication ceases. Trains are altogether stopped on the railways, the 
steamboats on the lake cease to run, the wagon -roads through the 
mountains are barricaded, and everything in the way of travel and 
transportation is at a most complete stand-still." 

" Do they destroy the roads and railways and burn the boats ?" was 
the question which naturally followed Frank's explanation. 

" That was the custom in times gone by," Frank replied; ^' but in this 
age they are more enlightened. As an illustration, I may mention the 
convention between Italy and the countries to the north relative to the 
great tunnels of Mont Cenis and Mont St. Gothard." 

'• What is that ?" 

" Why, it is agreed that in case of war between Italy and France 
or Switzerland the tunnel shall be closed and put in charge of a com- 
mission equally composed of representatives from the countries at war. 
The orders of this commission will be to preserve the tunnels from in- 
jury, to drain them, and look out for their welfare in every possible 
way, and at the same time to prevent their use for purposes of trade or 
travel of any kind ; and it is also agreed that neither country shall at- 
tempt to move troops through the tunnel." 

" That is a very sensible arrangement," said Mrs. Bassett. 

" Of course it is, and it is an illustration of the condition of enlight- 
enment that has been reached during this latter half of the nineteenth 
century. It's a vast improvement upon former customs." 

While this conversation w^as going on the steamboat was nearing 
Kiva, which was the end of its route. Our friends went ashore there, 
and found comfortable quarters at the Albergo Traffellini al Sole d'Oro. 
When Mrs. Bassett learned the name of the establishment she said it 
was a good deal of a name for so small a hotel. It reminded her of a 
child who grew up in a New England town under the depressing cog- 
nomen of Charles Augustus Morris Peabody Kobinson Smith. She 
said the youth never made any headway in the world, and the neigh- 
bors thought it was all in consequence of having so much name. 

Kiva isn't a large place. It has a population, so Mary ascertained, 
of not over three thousand. It has a castle and a fine church, the latter 
being resorted to by many pilgrims, but it is a noticeable circumstance 
that the pilgrimages decrease every year. There are also some mon- 



?{^ 



cr-"*. 



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ffr 



\X\-j 



^ 


ICfeS;^ "^E^^&^^j 


— 


m 


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T - 






c: ; ■ 






^M 


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B^^l 






'-:r^;. ^^ 



jfrS'lii 



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CT 



VIEW OF LIMONE. 



asteries, but they do not seem to be very prosperous, and certainly are 
not crowded with tenants. The port of Riva is the largest on Lake 
Garda, and there was quite a little fleet of lake vessels lying in the har- 
bor, or coming and going along the blue waters. The lemon and olive 
gardens in the vicinity are extensive and productive, and our friends 
made a pleasant excursion among them. 

Mary proposed a walk to the old castle, which stands high above 
the town on a mountain to the west, but the rest of the party did not 
care for the walk, as there was hardly a breath of wind blowing and the 
atmosphere was decidedly warm. Fred reminded Mary that they had 
already seen about as many monuments of the Scaligers as they cared 
for, and he added the information that the old castle was built and 
long maintained by that famous and once powerful family. 



86 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

'' If that is the case," said Mary, " I am quite content not to go 
there, and certainly agree with mamma that Ave had enough Scaligers 
in Yerona to go around and last a long time." 

A local guide wished to take the party to the Fall of the Ponale, and 
suggested a carriage - drive in that direction. Frank had ascertained 
that a better view of the fall could be had from the lake than from any 
point on shore, and accordingly a boat was engaged for a moonlight 
excursion in that direction. Under the bright moonlight the excursion 
was delightful, and Mary declared that it would be a very long time be- 
fore she could forget the effect of the rays of the moon on the lake. It 
is proper to say that the water-fall does not amount to much, as the 
river which makes it is a small one, and at the time our friends were 
there it was not by any means in a condition of flood. 

The party rose early to devote the forenoon to an excursion into the 
Yal di Ledro. They had an interesting drive among picturesque mount- 
ains, across noisy streams that rolled down from the steep slopes, and 
through villages which had an air of prosperity in the appearance of the 
houses that composed them, although the chief industry of their inhab- 
itants seemed to be beggary. At every village crowds of children and 
adults ran after the carriage, beseeching alms in whining tones that 
indicated near approach to starvation in consequence of lack of food. 
That beggary is a regular industry, or possibly a profession, throughout 
all Italy and the part of the Tyrol bordering upon it, every traveller 
who visits that region will bear witness. 

Speaking on this subject, Fred said that not infrequently when they 
were taking a walk or drive they would see a group of children at 
play. The children seemed to be enjoying themselves thoroughly, 
laughing and shouting with glee, but the moment they espied the 
strangers there was a sudden change of scene. The play was aban- 
doned, the laughter ceased, the smiling faces grew sorrowful, and the 
children immediately surrounded the group of strangers, each child ex- 
tending a hand, and in the most doleful accents beseeching money under 
the plea of poverty and an approaching death from hunger. In many 
parts of Italy the Government has done much for the suppression of 
beggary, but there is an excellent opportunity for it to do a great deal 
more, especially in the southern provinces. 

When the party had finished with the sights of Kiva and its neigh- 
borhood they returned to the lower end of the lake by the steamboat 
for Desenzano. Fred wanted to stay a day longer, in order that he 
might go on a fishing excursion ; but he did not mention his desire to 



FISHES IN LAKE GARDA. 



87 



fiis companions, as he knew they would not be greatly In sympathy 
with it, and he did not wish to detain them in that locality on his ac- 
count. He consoled himself by looking into the piscatorial resources of 
Lake Garda, and finding that there were several varieties of fish in the 
lake. The fishing industry was of considerable importance, the princi- 
pal fishes being the carpione, or salmon-trout, which is the largest fish 
of the lake. N^ot infrequently one is caught exceeding twenty or even 



>>, 








§^--^«(%f^'F 







s. *°^ I iQTS^' ■■--■'<■ 







^A^,*' 



RIVA, FROM THE PONALE ROAD. 



twenty-five pounds in weight, and a carpione of eight or ten pounds is 
considered small. Then comes the trota^ or trout, which sometimes 
reaches two pounds in weight, and then the lagone and the sardine. 



88 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



All these are excellent table fishes, and one could naturally expect them 
to be so, as the waters of Lake Garda, like the water of all the Alpine 
lakes, is very clear and pure, and also cold. 

A few minutes after the steamboat had left the harbor of Kiva our 
friends had a view of the Fall of the Ponale, which has already been 
itientioned in connection with their moonlight excursion. The view of 
the lake on the southward journey was very much like that of the north- 
ward one, and therefore we will not attempt to describe it further than. 




VILLAGE SCENE. 



to mention a picturesque old castle on the eastern shore of the lake, 
which Mrs. Bassett thought she would like to visit. It is near the town 
of Malcesine, and is said to have been erected by the Emperor Charle- 
magne. For a long time it was a stronghold of robbers, who used to 
exact toll from travellers along the lake, just as the robber barons of 
the Rhine were accustomed to earn their living by the plunder of others. 
On the boat which carried them down the lake our friends met an 
American family, the Chapmans, whose acquaintance they had made at 




ITALIAN GUIDES. 



one of the hotels in Switzerland, as we learned in The Boy Travellers 
in Central Europe. The meeting was an agreeable one, and the time 
of the passage of the steamer from Riva to Desenzano was very much 
shortened by the narration of experiences since the parties had last met. 
Mr. Chapman was laboring under the vexation of an experience at 
a railway station a few days before, when he was attempting to for- 
ward a trunk to Paris. He said that it took him nearly an hour to 
dispose of the trunk and send it on its way, and before he was through 



90 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

with the job he visited no fewer than five desks of officials ; he signed 
two " declarations," giving a minute description of the contents of the 
trunk and their value ; three long " freight letters " were necessary in 
addition to the declarations, each of them covering about two pages of 
foolscap. He was required to sign the " declarations," and also one of 
the "freight letters;" and then, after paying for the freight on the 
trunk, he was required to pay two francs in addition for making out 
the papers and completing the formalities. 

" It is no wonder," said he, " that they are so backward in ordinary 
business matters when they go through so much formality for a very 
little. They are the slowest people on this side of the Atlantic that you 
can possibly imagine ; but when you take them out of their own country 
to live in another they generally develop a good deal of shrewdness 
and ability, no matter how stupid they may have been at home." 

Frank said he thought that the apparent stupidity came from their 
habits of thought being fixed in certain directions from generation to 
generation. " I believe," said he, " that you will find the same sort of 
things in some of the older parts of the United States. Men in Massa- 
chusetts, New Hampshire, and other parts of New England, who have 
displayed very little ability in the places where they were born, have 
gone West and made great names for themselves. In the same way 
the people of this Continent, when they get to America, are developed 
to a degree they would never have reached at home." 

There was more philosophizing on this subject, but we will not at- 
tempt to repeat all that was said. Some of the anecdotes which were 
told during the discussion may be of interest. 

" You know," said Mr. Chapman, " that throughout the cities of the 
Continent most of the new enterprises for street railways, and the like, 
usually emanate from English or American capitalists or speculators. 
I happen to know," he continued, " of a very funny incident which took 
place in an important city of Germany. Out of deference to the au- 
thorities of that city please excuse me from naming it. 

" An English company wanted to lay a street railway, or, as they 
call it in England, a tramway, in that city. They opened negotiations 
with the city council, and the matter was under consideration for some 
time. At length a day was fixed for a final decision on the subject. A 
representative of the company met the city council, which was com- 
posed of men of prominence, and had a long session with them on the 
subject of the tramway. The matter was debated in all its bearings, 
and the council finally told the stranger that they would grant the 




A MARRIAGE FESTIVAL. — [From an old painting.] 



92 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

concession asked for ; he might consider the matter settled, and as soon 
as the papers could be drawn they would be duly signed officially, and 
the company might begin work at once. 

" There was no further occasion for the gentleman to remain in the 
council hall; and after thanking the officials for their courtesy and the 
attention they had given to the subject, he withdrew, and returned to 
his hotel, very tired and very hungry. He immediately ordered some- 
thing to eat, and had just taken his seat at the table when the head- 
waiter came to tell him there was a member of the city council outside 
who wished to see him at once on a matter of the very greatest impor- 
tance, which could not be delayed a moment. 

" ' Yery well,' said the gentleman ; ' admit him.' 
"Thereupon the member of the city council entered the dining- 
room, flushed and out of breath. He dropped into a chair, and as soon 
as he' could speak, he said that they must consider the whole matter of 
the tramway as quite out of the question. He added, ' I have been 
selected by the city council to come and tell you at once that we have 
found an insuperable obstacle that utterly prevents the construction of 
the tramway, and the whole negotiation must be declared void.' 

" ' Well,' said the surprised and greatly disappointed gentleman, 
' what is the obstacle you have found V 

" ' Why,' replied the member of the city council, ' we have found 
that along a part of the route the limbs of the trees are so low that your 
cars could not possibly run, and that will prevent the construction of 
the tramway which you have proposed.' 

" ' Yery well,' said the Englishman ; ' cut off the limbs of the trees.' 
'' ' Well, I declare 1' exclaimed the member of the city council, ' none 
of us ever thought of that. Why, of course, that's easy enough.' " 

When the laugh over this story had subsided, Frank narrated the 
experience a year or two before of a friend of his with a locksmith in 
Dresden, which was as follows : 

Frank's friend had a key to the outer door of his lodging-house, as 
had every other lodger in that establishment. One day he broke his 
door-key, the piece that was broken remaining in the lock. He sent at 
once for a locksmith, and when that individual appeared the gentleman 
explained what had happened. The locksmith removed the lock, took 
out the piece that had been broken from the key, and then proceeded 
to adapt the lock to the broken key. The result was that when the 
other lodgers came home that night they could not get mto the house, 
and the problem presented itself, whether the lock should be put back 



THE STORY-TELLERS. 



93 



in its original condition, and the gentleman with the broken key 
equipped with a new one, or should all the other keys be broken in the 
same way as the one that was accidentally injured. 

" I've a story that will match that," said Mr. Chapman, as Frank 
paused at the end of his narration. 

" I was riding out, near Dresden, one day with a gentleman of my 
acquaintance who lives in that city. We were going up a hill, and I 
observed that the driver had not released his brake, which was pressing 
upon the wheel. The poor horse 
was tugging with all his might 
to drag the carriage with the 
three of us in it, and the brake 
resting upon the wheel, up the 
hill. My knowledge of German 
is not very good," said the gentle- 
man, " and so I called my friend's 
attention to the state of affairs, 
and suggested that he inform 
the driver. 

" He did so. The driver 
looked at the wheel and the 
brake, and then shrugged his 
shoulders, as he replied, ' I can- 
not do anything about it, they 
made the wheel too large.' " 

" That man was a bigger fool than Thomson's colt," said Mrs. Bassett. 

" I wish you would tell me," said Mr. Chapman, " exactl}^ what 
Thomson's colt did ; I have heard that remark many times in New 
England, but never knew what was the particular folly of that quad- 
ruped which belonged to Thomson." 

" Why," said Mrs. Bassett, '' when I was a girl this is the story they 
used to tell, and very often, too : 

" Mr. Thomson raised a colt that ran in a field near the house, and 
used to drink out of a watering-trough at the barn. There was a river 
that separated this field from the pasture beyond it, and when the colt 
was a year old it was put with the cows and horses to pasture on the 
other side of the river. Well, every day when that colt was thirsty he 
used to swim, the river to go and drink out of the watering-trough at 
the barn. He didn't know enough to drink from the river." 

When the steamer reached Desenzano our friends found a disap- 




CHRIST xMOCKED.' — [Engraving by Albert Diirer.] 



94 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

pointment in store for them. On leaving Peschiera, Frank had intrust- 
ed the trunks of the party to the master at the railway station, with 
instuctions to forward them to Desenzano, the travellers taking only 
their handbags for their excursion on the lake, as they expected to 
spend but a single night at Riva. Inquiry at the station at Desenzano 
showed that the trunks had not arrived, but were still at Peschiera. 
Frank talked very vigorously to the station-master at Desenzano, and 
set the telegraph in operation ; but he made no headway, and concluded 
that it would be necessary for one of them to go personally to Peschi- 
era and see the baggage forwarded from that point. 

" Yery well," said Fred, " I will go. It is only a half -hour's ride 
from here to Peschiera ; the rest of you can take the first train to Bre- 
scia, where there is sight-seeing enough to keep you busy until I arrive." 

" I have another plan," said Mary. 

" What is that ?" queried Frank. 

" We can all go to Peschiera, and make a fresh start from that 
point. Isn't that perfectly feasible ?" 

" Oh yes," said Frank, " of course it is ; but there is no particular 
need of it, and there is nothing special to be seen between here and that 
place along the line of the railway." 

" We can go in a roundabout way, and visit Solferino," Mary re- 
plied. " The village of Solferino is about ten miles from here, and ten 
or twelve from Peschiera. We might take a carriage-drive to Solfe- 
rino, and from there to Peschiera, which would enable us to see the 
village, and pass over a considerable portion of the battle-field." 

" That's a very good idea," said Frank. " What do you think of it, 
Fred ?" he asked, as he turned to his cousin. 

Fred had no objections, but, on the whole, it was concluded that as 
they had visited the battle-field of Custozza, and seen Solferino in the 
distance, it was hardly worth their while to make the excursion ; be- 
sides, the clouds were threatening, and the prospect of rain in a long 
carriage - drive was not encouraging. It was accordingly determined 
that Fred would return to Peschiera, Avhile the others proceeded to 
Brescia, the latter place being about an hour's run by railway from 
Desenzano and well worth visiting. 

We will leave Mary to tell the story of what they saw in Brescia. 

"According to history," said the girl, "Brescia is the ancient 
Brixia, which was conquered by the Gauls, and afterwards became a 
Roman colony. At the beginning of the sixteenth century it was one 
of the wealthiest cities of Lombardy, and an important rival of Milan, 




INTERIOR OF A RICH man's HOUSE.— [From an old painting.] 



96 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

In 1512 it was sacked and burned by the French under Gaston de Foix, 
in spite of a very obstinate defence which was made by its garrison 
and citizens. In 1517 it was restored to the KepubUc of Yenice, to 
which it belonged until 179Y, but it suffered so severely at the time of 
its capture by the French that it has never been able to recover its 
former importance, or get back its old trade. 

Brescia has about forty thousand inhabitants, and Fred says that a 
great number of them are engaged in the manufacture of iron wares. 
Previous to 181:8 it had a large business in the manufacture of weapons, 
and a very considerable proportion of the guns and swords used by the 
Austrian army were made here. The manufacture of these articles has 
diminished somewhat ; but it has by no means become extinct, as great 
numbers of weapons are turned out here every year for the Italian 
army. The town is walled and is defended by a castello^ or castle, 
which was no doubt a formidable place of defence in past centuries, 
but is not of much consequence in these times of long range artillery. 

Brescia has several interesting churches, some of them very old. 
We only visited the cathedral and the church called La Kotonda, the 
former dating from the seventeenth, and the latter from the twelfth 
century. We were more interested in visiting the Public Library, 
which contains a fine collection of antiquities of various kinds. Among 
-other things, we saw a book of the Gospels of the ninth century, 
with gold letters on purple vellum; and the Koran, in twelve vol- 
umes, beautifully adorned with gilding and miniatures. They showed 
us a cross four feet in height made of gold, and decorated with cameos 
and jewels and the portraits of an empress and her sons of the fourth 
century, the time when the cross and its ornaments w^ere made. Then 
there was a small cross with gold and pearls, and a fragment of the 
true cross, which is said to have been worn by St. Helena. 

'' There were many other curiosities in the Library that would make 
a ver}^ long list if I should attempt to name them. Among them was 
a manuscript by Dante on parchment, ornamented with miniatures ; and 
there was a volume of Dante's poems, which was printed at Brescia in 
1487. It was very curious, as it illustrated the mode of printing at 
that time, about forty years after the invention of movable types. 

" From the Library we went to the Museum, Avhich also contains 
some very rare things. In fact, the Museum itself, apart from its con- 
tents, is a curiosity, as it is established in a Corinthian temple which 
was erected by the Emperor Yespasian in the year 72 ; at least, an in- 
scription tells us so. The principal hall of the Museum contains the 




KING DAVID SEES A VISION OF THE MESSIAH. 



98 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

altar, which is in its ancient position, and the original pavement has. 
been restored as far as possible. For hundreds of years the temple 
was buried in a mass of ruins and rubbish, and was excavated as late 
as 1822. There are some very ancient sculptures in the Museum, one 
of them being a fine statue of Victory, excavated in 1826. It is a 
bronze figure about six feet high, with a silver wreath of laurel round 
the head. The shield, which is held in the left hand, is modern, and 
so is the helmet under the left foot ; but all, or nearly all, the rest is 
ancient and of Roman manufacture. 

" Then we went to another museum, the Galleria Tosi, which is not 
far from the one where we saw the Victory statue. This museum 
was given to the city, together with the palace in which it is estab- 
lished, by Count Tosi, and it contains some very fine works in marble 
and numerous paintings by famous artists. Some of the most interest- 
ing things that we saw in the collection were drawings and engravings, 
many of the latter dating from the very earliest times of the art of 
printing pictures from wooden blocks. One cabinet contains engrav- 
ings from the hand of Albert Diirer ; they are framed in such a way 
that most of them can be examined easily, and, what is not always the 
case in museums, there is a very good light upon them. 

"We were fully occupied all the time that we were waiting for 
Fred, who had agreed to meet us at the railway station at a certain 
hour, so that we could continue on the train with him to Lecco. 

" We were at the station promptly on time, and when the train 
came along we were all ready to step into one of the carriages. We 
passed through Bergamo, but did not stop there. Frank said that 
Bergamo was very much like Brescia, and having seen one town it was- 
hardly worth our while to stop at the other. We went to Lecco be- 
cause it would take us to Lake Como, which, as you know, is one of 
the famous lakes of Italy. 

" The southern part of Lake Como divides into two arms, one of 
them terminating at Lecco and the other at Como. Frank and Fred had 
planned it so that we should reach the lake at Lecco, and ascend the 
eastern arm of it to Bellagio, which is at the end of the point of land 
separating the two arms that I mentioned. From Bellagio we would 
go to the upper end of the lake, and on our return pass through the 
western arm to Como, there to take the train for IVFilan.'' 



CHAPTEK YI. 

LAKE COMO; ITS EXTENT AND PECULIARITIES; FRED'S ACCOUNT OF THEIR 
VISIT; PALACES AND VILLAS; MOUNTAINS SURROUNDING THE LAKE,— OLD 
CASTLES.— LODGING IN A PALACE.— STREETS OF BELLAGIO.— VILLA MELZI 
AND ITS GARDENS. — VILLA SERBELLONI. — FINE VIEW OF THE LAKE.— 
STATUARY AND PAINTINGS. —VILLA CARLOTTA, AND ITS HISTORY.— EXCUR- 
SION TO COLICO.— A RAINY DAY, AND WPIAT CAME OF IT.— TOWN OF COMO.— 
PLINY'S LETTER TO HIS FRIEND.— MONZA.— THE IRON CROWN.— A NAIL OF 
THE TRUE CROSS.— MILAN; SHORT HISTORY OF THE CITY.— UNPOPULARITY 
OF THE AUSTRIAN RULE.— THE FAMOUS CATHEDRAL.— HOW MARY WAS DE- 
CEIVED.— ST. CHARLES BORROMEO.— ROOF AND TOWER OF THE CATHEDRAL.— 
MILAN AS A PATRON OF ART.— "THE LAST SUPPER."— LEONARDO DA VINCL— 
INVENTION OF OIL-PAINTING.— THE BROTHERS VAN EYCK.— THE BRERA AND 
ITS ART TREASURES. 

CONCEKKING their visit to Lake Como and the places along its 
shores Fred made the following note : 

" The Lake of Como has been famous for many centuries. It w^as 
praised by Yirgil, the Italian poet, with whose works a great many 
school-boys are familiar, and it was known to the Romans as the Lacus 





SAN GIOVANNI (bELLAGIO), ON LAKE COMO. 



Larius. It is about 
thirty miles in 
length, and its 
greatest width is less than three 
miles. To many travellers it 
seems more like a river than a 
lake, but the stranger speedily dis- 
covers that it has no current, and 
is really what its name implies, a lake. It is enclosed in the mountains 
for nearly its entire length ; its waters are of a deep blue, and it has a 
depth in some places of very nearly 2000 feet. Many people regard it 
as the most beautiful of the Italian lakes, and in one respect it is 
certainly the most popular, as no other lake of Italy can boast of so 
large a number of palaces and handsome villas as the celebrated Como. 
" All along the banks of the lake we have seen these palaces and 



THE SHORES OF THE LAKE. 



101 



villas, until their number was fairly bewildering. They are surrounded 
by luxuriant gardens and vineyards, while beyond them the hills and 




A STREET IN BELLAGIO. 



mountains present the grayish tints of the olive-trees which grow here 
in great abundance. Some of the mountains bordering the lake rise to 
a height of 7000 feet. The sheet of water is so narrow that at times we 



102 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

seemed to be repeating our voyage along the Rhine, the illusion being 
increased by the number of castles scattered along the hills or near the 
Avater, and the general configuration of the land. I am told that one of 
the industries of the people bordering the lake is the production and 
manufacture of silk. Silk is a very important product of Italy, and 
the region around and to the south of Lake Como seems admirably 
adapted to the cultivation of the silk-worm." 

Mrs. Bassett desired to visit an Italian villa, and Frank promised 
that she should do so in a way she hardly expected. The party took 
the steamboat from Lecco to Eellagio, and when they reached the hotel 
which bears the name " Grand Hotel Bellagio," and were comfortably 
settled in it, Frank asked his mother what she thought of the house. 

"Oh, this is a delightful place! a very spacious, comfortable house, 
with such nice balconies and terraces; I wish all hotels were made in 
this way. They would be much more attractive." 

" Well," said Frank, " you are in a hotel, and you are also in an 
Italian villa. This building was formerly the Yilla Frizzoni, and has 
been changed very little, indeed, to adapt it to its present uses. People 
come and go here without a suspicion that they are lodged in a villa 
palace on the shore of Lake Como, but such is really the case." 

" I wouldn't mind staying here a Aveek or two," Mrs. Bassett an- 
swered ; "it is such a comfortable spot." 

"Well, we will see about that," said Frank; " it is too late in the day 
to attempt any of the regular sight -seeing. In fact, it is now about 
sunset, and we will take a little stroll through Bellagio and be ready 
for an excursion to-morrow morning." 

This proposal was satisfactory to all concerned. Their stroll through 
Bellagio revealed some quaint nooks, and as the town is built on a 
hill-side, some of the streets through which they passed were in the 
form of stairways. Most of the streets are quite narrow, and some of 
them are partially covered with arches extending from the buildings on 
one side to those on the other, and excluding sun and rain. 

In the morning our friends made an excursion to some of the villas 
in the neighborhood of Bellagio, including the Villa Melzi, which was 
built for Count Melzi, who was Yice-President of the Italian Republic 
under Napoleon in 1802, and afterwards became Duke of Lodi. The 
villa belongs at present to his grandson, Avho was absent at the time, 
and therefore our friends had an opportunity of seeing the interior by 
paying a small fee to the custodian. 

From the Yilla Melzi thev went to the Yilla Serbelloni, from which 




VILLA SERBELLONI. 



they had a fine view of the lake. This villa stands at a considerable 
elevation above the lake, so that as one stands on its balcony he can 
look down upon the roofs of the houses at Bellagio and other points. 
The prospect is a charming one, and many have pronounced it the finest 
on the lake. Quite as interesting, or nearly as much so as the villas, 
were the gardens around them, as they exhibit all the fragrance and 



104 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



luxuriance of southern vegetation, mingled not infrequently with the 
vegetation of the regions of the north. 

In the garden of the Villa Melzi there are magnificent magnolias, 
camellias, cedars, aloes, Chinese pines, and other trees whose home is 
principally in the tropics, or very close to their border. The garden is 
further adorned with sculpture, and throughout the interior of the 

building there are many 
very fine works of art. 
There are copies of ancient 
busts in marble by Canova, 
and there are beautiful 
frescos by some of the best 
artists in that line of work,, 
and there are statuettes 
and paintings in great num- 
ber. In fact, it was not 
possible to make a careful 
examination of everything 
during the short time at 
the disposal of our friends. 
On their return to the 
hotel they w^ere besieged 
by boatmen w^ho wished to- 
take them across the lake 
to Cadenabbia and Men ag- 
gie. At the former place 
is the celebrated Villa Car- 
lotta, or Sommariva, the 
latter name coming from 
the Count of Sommariva^ 
to whom it formerly belonged. About fifty years ago it came into the 
possession of Prince Albert of Prussia, from whose daughter Charlotte^ 
to w^hom he gave it, its present name is derived. 

Tliis villa is a very showy one, and was built at a vast outlay. One 
of the rooms of the interior is known as the Marble Hall, and contains 
a frieze decorated with reliefs by the famous Danish sculptor Thorwald- 
sen. These reliefs represent the Triumph of Alexander, and it is said 
that Count Sommariva paid for them the enormous sum of 375,000 
francs, or $75,000. There are several statues by Canova, and statues 
and paintings by other sculptors and artists whose names are known to 




PULPIT IN AN ANCIENT CIIURCU. 



AROUND BELLAGIO. 



105 



fame. The garden of the Yilla Carlotta is fully equal to the gardens of 
Melzi and Serbelloni, and from several points in the garden there are 
fine views of the lake in the direction of Bellagio. The excursion we 
have described occupied an entire day, or so much of it that there was 
practically no time left for anything more. 

Next day the party made an excursion by steamboat up the lake to 
Colico, which is the point of departure for Switzerland, by way of the 




THE IRON CROWN. 



Spielgen Pass. Colico contained very little of interest, and all were 
quite ready to come back again on the return trip of the boat which 
cai'ried them thither and be once more at Bellagio. 

A trip was planned to the Lake of Lugano, but it was interfered 
with by a heavy rain, and consequently given up. 

Although kept in doors by the inclemency of the weather, our 
friends did not find the time hanging heavy on their hands, as there 
were many subjects of interest which occupied their attention. People 
of every nationality seemed to be stopping at the hotel, and the obser- 
vation of their peculiarities, together with the contemplation of the 
lake and the hills surrounding it, were entertainments of which they did 
not become weary in the hours when the rain was falling. 

The next day the sun shone bright again, and the walks and drives 
and boat excursions w^ere resumed. Four days were passed very 
pleasantly at Bellagio, and then one morning the party took the steam- 
boat for Como, whence they took the train for Monza and Milan. Be- 
fore their departure from Como, Mary made note of the circumstance 



106 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

that the elder PUny was born there, and also the celebrated electrician 
and philosopher Yolta. She found somewhere an extract from a letter 
which the younger Pliny wrote to a friend at Como, and this extract 
she copied into her note-book, to show how the lake was regarded in 
the first century of the Christian era. Here it is : 

" What are you doing at Como ? Do you study, hunt, or fish, or all 
three together ? For on our beloved lake one can do all these. Her 
waters afford fish, her wooded heights game, and her deep solitude 
quiet for study. But, whatever you do, I envy j^ou, and I cannot re- 
strain the confession that it makes my heart heavy not to be able to 
share that with you, for which I pine as a sick man for a cooling drink, 
a bath, or a living spring. Shall I tear with violence these close-fitting 
bonds if no other solution is possible ? Ah ! I fear never. For before 
old occupations are ended new ones are thrust upon me, and thus link 
after link is added to the chain of endless toil which holds me here 
inthralled. Farewell !" 

Before leaving Como, Frank had made a careful study of the time- 
table of the railway, and arranged that the party should stop at Monza, 
eight miles north of Milan, to visit the cathedral, which is the chief 
object of interest in the city, and does not require a long time for its 
inspection. The cathedral at Monza was built, in the fourteenth century, 
on the site of a church which was founded in the year 595 by the Lom- 
bardy queen Theodolinda. The cathedral is a very solid structure, 
containing double aisles and transept, with chapels on both sides. It 
contains the tomb of the queen who founded it, and also the tombs of 
several rulers of Lombardy and other men of note. 

One of the curiosities of the cathedral is the celebrated Iron Crown, 
which was used at the coronation of thirty -four Lombardy kings ; it was 
last used at the coronation of Emperor Ferdinand I. in 1838. When 
Napoleon Bonaparte was at Monza he took the crown, and with his 
own hands placed it upon his head. It is a very ancient piece of work, 
and consists of a broad hoop of gold ornamented with precious stones. 
Around the interior of the crown there is a thin strip of iron, Avhich is 
said to have been made from a nail of the true cross brought by the 
Empress Helena from Palestine. The Austrians carried it away in 
1859, but it was restored to its old place after the peace of 1866. 

In the treasury of the church our friends saw several objects of his- 
torical interest. Among them was a golden hen with seven chickens 
in gold, made by order of Queen Theodolinda to represent Lombardy 
and its seven provinces. They also saw the cross which was placed on 



SIGHTS AT MONZA. 



107 



the breast of each Lombard king at the moment of his coronation, two 
silver loaves which were presented by Napoleon I., and the crown, fan, 
and comb of Queen Theodolinda. Mrs. Bassett thought the fan and 
comb might have been well enough for a queen who lived 1300 years 
ago, but they would be of no great consequence nowadays. Mary said 
she had fans and combs of much more practical use than those in the 




INTKRIOR OF CHURCH OF ST. AMBROGIO, MILAN. 



collection, but she would gladly exchange them all for the antique ones, 
for the sake of the historic associations connected with the latter. 

An hour passed very quickly in the cathedral at Monza, and then 
the party returned to the railway station to continue its journey to 
Milan. From the railway station at the latter place they drove to the 
interior of the city, and in due time were comfortably settled at one of 
the hotels and w^ere ready for sight-seeing. 

Mrs. Bassett and Mary were agreeably surprised at the extent and 
grandeur of the city, and when they said so, as they were riding from 
the station to the hotel, Frank told them that Milan had been sur- 
named La Grande (The Great). He added that it was one of the wealth- 
iest and most prosperous cities of Italy, and had a population of two 



108 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

hundred and fifty thousand or more. " The circumference of the city,'' 
said Frank, " is more than nine miles. It was founded by the Komans, 
who called it Mediolanum ; it was a prosperous city in early times, and 
was totally destroyed in 1162 by Frederick Barbarossa, Emperor of 
Germany. It Avas immediately rebuilt by the allied cities of Mantua, 
Brescia, Cremona, and Bergamo, and in course of time all traces of the 
destruction had passed away. Occasionally some of the ancient foun- 
dations are uncovered in the course of excavations for new buildings ; a 
few of the churches escaped the general destruction, and that was all. 
Five hundred years ago Milan had a high reputation as a patron of art, 
and it retained this reputation for a long time." 

" I suppose it fell into the hands of the Austrians, like the rest of 
Lombardy, did it not ?" Mary asked. 

" Yes," said Frank ; " it was captured by the Spaniards, and afterwards, 
in 1714, the Austrians took possession. From 1796 to 1815 it was the 
capital of the Kingdom of Italy, and then the Austrians obtained it 
once more. There was a great insurrection here in 1848, which com- 
pelled the Austrians to evacuate the city ; but they soon regained pos- 
session of it, though their rule was unpopular." 

" I have read somewhere," said Mary, " that the Italians all through 
the northern part of Italy would not associate in any way with their 
Austrian rulers during the twenty years and more previous to the wars 
of 1859 and 1866, and especially between those years." 

" That is quite true," Frank replied ; "or, at any rate, substantially 
so. In Milan, Yenice, Yerona, and other of the Italian cities the people 
adopted a plan with reference to the Austrians which, in these days, 
would be called ' boycotting.' I can best describe it by telling the ex- 
perience of a gentleman with whom I was talking while we were in 
Yenice about his visit to that city a few years previous to 1866. He said 
he passed a week or more in Yenice, and was fond of strolling or sitting 
among the people at the cafes along the Piazza San Marco. On several 
occasions Austrian officers in uniform came along and took seats at a 
cafe ; the Italians seated there immediately paid what they owed to the 
waiters and left the spot. Every afternoon the Austrian band came 
into the Piazza to play. Previous to the appearance of the band the 
place would be full of Italians, and great numbers of them were seated 
at the cafes. As soon as the band appeared and struck its first note 
every Italian went away ; the place was cleared as speedily as though a 
dozen lions and tigers had been let loose there. 

" It w^as the same at the theatres ; the appearance of a group of 



ITALIAN HATRED OF AUSTRIA. 



109 



Austrian officers was sufficient to cause all the Italians present to leave 
their seats and go home. One evening a benefit was given to a very 
popular Italian actor. The gentleman had great difficulty in obtaining 
tickets for his party, and expected to see the house crowded ; on going 
there he found about twenty seats occupied by Austrian officers, and 




RELIEF UPON THE PULPIT OF AN ANCIENT CHURCH. 



every other seat vacant, with the exception of the few that had been 
taken by foreigners like himself. All the places had been secured in 
advance and paid for, and the actor received a substantial financial 
benefit, though, to all appearances, the house was nearly empty." 

" And was it the same way in Milan T Mrs. Bassett asked. 

"Yes; practically the same previous to 1859," Frank answered. 
" There were a few Italians who were on friendly terms with the Aus- 
trian rulers, but they were looked upon with contempt by the rest of 
their countrymen. After the return of Italian rule they suffered 
severely for their former lack of patriotism, as they were shunned by 
their ow^n people and received the coldest of treatment at all times. 



110 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

Some of them found the state of affairs so disagreeable that they 
moved away, while those who remained in their old homes, had to pass 
their lives in comparative solitude." 

" Such a state of affairs couldn't have been very agreeable to the 
Austrians, it seems to me," said Mrs. Bassett. 

'' No, it certainly could not have been," responded Frank ; " but 
probably they didn't care much for the feelings of the people. They 
held their position by right of conquest, and the conqueror never cares 
very much how the conquered people regard his presence." 

" You say that Milan is a very prosperous manufacturing city," 
said Mary. " What are its principal lines of manufacture ?" 

" I can answer that question," said Fred, " as I've been looking into 
the subject. It has a great many lines of manufacture, such as cutlery, 
porcelain, and wooden and iron ware ; but the greatest of all its indus- 
tries is the manufacture of silk goods and ribbons. It has a very large 
trade in raw silk, which is shipped from here to France, England, and 
the United States for manufacture. Since the events of 1859 and 
1866 Milan has grown very rapidly, and there have been many marked 
improvements in its streets and buildings ; in fact, I doubt if any other 
town in Italy has made in the past twenty-five years as much progress 
as this, or increased its population more rapidly." 

"I can see," said Mrs. Bassett, " that the streets are wide and well 
paved — at least, those that we have seen thus far." 

" Yes," said Frank ; " you will find that the older and narrower 
streets are very clean and well kept, and great attention is paid to 
neatness and cleanliness everywhere. You will also — " 

" Excuse me for interrupting you," said Mrs. Bassett, " but what is 
that magnificent building ?" As she spoke she pointed in the direction 
just ahead of them, and indicated an immense structure apparently of 
white marble that seemed to fill the horizon. 

" Oh, that," said Frank, as his eye followed that of his mother — 
" that is the cathedral, the famous Cathedral of Milan. It is not far 
from the hotel where we are to stop, and it will be the first thing that 
will command our attention in sight-seeing." 

"It is certainly a very large church — very large, indeed!" Mrs. 
Bassett remarked in a tone of admiration. 

"Yes, the ^people of Milan regard it as the eighth wonder of the 
world; it is the third largest church in Europe, the two larger ones 
being St. Peters at Eome and the cathedral at Seville. I will tell you 
more about it when Ave visit it and ascend to the roof," 



THE CATHEDRAL OF MILAN. 



Ill 



On their way from the hotel to the cathedral Frank told his mother 
that the interior of the edifice was nearly 500 feet in length by 200 
feet in width. " The nave of the building," said he, " is 155 feet high 
and 55 feet broad ; the dome is 220 feet high, and the tower rises 360 
feet above the pavement. Just think of it !" 

"What a lot of turrets and statues there are !" Mrs. Bassett ex- 
claimed, as she paused in her footsteps, and looked upward at the 
exterior of the building. " Has anybody counted them ?" 

" Yes," said Frank ; " there are about 100 of those turrets (98, to be 
exact), and there are altogether 2000 statues in marble. Many of the 
statues and ornaments were badly injured by the French in 1796. 
Some of them have been repaired or 
' restored,' but a great many were inca- 
pable of repair." 

"It doesn't look like a very old 
building," said Mary. " One might al- 
most say that it had been finished 
within the present year." 

" It is older than it appears to be," 
said Frank. "It was begun in 1386, 
and finished in its principal parts by 
the end of the fifteenth century. In 
1805, after the conquest of Italy by the 
French, the Emperor Napoleon caused 
the work on the cathedral to be re- 
sumed, and the tower over the dome to 
be added. Additions and repairs have 
been going on ever since, and great at- 
tention is paid to keeping the building 
in perfect order." 

Our friends walked around the out- 
side of the cathedral, and then passed 
into the interior through the main en- 
trance. Mary called attention to the 
pavement, which consists entirely of mo- 
saic in marble of different colors, and 
then she uttered an exclamation of sur- 
prise at the vaulting of the interior, 
which seemed to be made of perforated 




stone. 



MADONNA BELLA CINTOLA. 



112 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

" What a vast amount of work it must have been," she said, " and 
what patience was required to put the stone in such a shape as that." 

Fred smiled, and told the girl she was deceived. " What you think 
is perforated stone," said he, " is really painting or fresco. It is very 
cleverly done, and I don't wonder at your being deceived. I wouldn't 
have known to the contrary had I not learned the fact before I came 
to the church, and even then 1 hesitated." 

Then the visitors turned their attention to the monuments con- 
tained in the edifice, finishing with the chapel of St. Charles Borromeo, 
which is in front of the choir beneath the dome. It is elaborately and 
expensively decorated with gold and precious stones, and contains the 
relics of that very celebrated saint. 

As they stood looking at the chapel and its decorations, Mrs. Bas- 
sett asked who St. Charles Borromeo was, and what he did. 

" He was cardinal and archbishop in 1560," said Fred. " He was 
born at Arona, in 1538, and was illustrious for his charity and piety. 
He devoted himself, so history tells us, to reforming the morals of the 
clergy, and providing charitable institutions for the poor. During the 
prevalence of the plague at Milan, in 1576, he gave his personal attend- 
ance to the sick at the risk of his life, and spent all that he possessed 
in administering to their wants. He died in 1584, reverenced as a 
saint and martyr, and was canonized in due time." 

" Oh, I remember," said Mary, " a picture representing St. Charles 
Borromeo going among the sick and dying during the plague. I 
understand now the meaning of it." 

" In one of the chapels in the north aisle," said Frank, " there is the 
crucifix that he carried when he went about barefooted engaged in his 
missions of mercy. We will see it as we go out of the church." 

" Thank you," said Mrs. Bassett. " I would like to see it, as a mat- 
ter of curiosity, and any other relic of the saint." 

From the chapel our friends ascended to the roof and tower of the 
building ; or, rather, we should say all ascended to the roof, but Frank 
and Fred only ascended the tower. The view from the roof takes in 
the city and a good deal of the surrounding country, while that from 
the tower includes a fine view of the Alps, provided the weather is clear. 
Fortunately for our friends there was not a cloud in the sky, and 
Frank and Fred were able to make out some of their old acquaintances 
of their tour in Switzerland. Among them were Mont Blanc, the Great 
Saint Bernard, Monte Rosa, the Matterhorn, the Bernese Alps, and the 
summits of the Saint Gothard. In the south the range of the Apennines 




ST. BARBARA. 



114 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

was visible, and also the domes and towers of Pavia. The party was in 
no haste to leave the roof of the church, as the view from it was an 
enchanting one — not only the view of the city, the country, and the 
mountains in the distance, but that of the building itself, which seemed 
more stupendous from their elevated position than when they looked at 
it from below, and seemed to cover a vast area. 

From whatever point one regards the Cathedral of Milan he cannot 
fail to be greatly impressed by its extent, its grandeur, its magnificence, 
and the vast amount of labor that has been bestowed upon it. The 
Milanese have every reason to be proud of this splendid edifice, and no 
one can blame them for regarding it as the eighth of the great wonders 
of the world ; they might even rank it higher. 

We have not space to tell all that was seen and heard and done by 
our friends during their stay in Milan. They went the rounds ordina- 
rily made by the tourist, visiting churches, galleries, museums, and other 
places of interest, and when the time came for departure each one of 
them sought excuses for remaining longer. Mary and her mother sug- 
gested that Milan ought to be a good place for shopping, as it was the 
centre of the silk industry of Italy. They were sure that they could 
make purchases to advantage ; but on second thought and sober consid- 
eration it was decided that they had a sufficiency of wearing apparel for 
the present, and it was hardly necessary or Avise to burden themselves 
with superfluous goods that would naturally require superfluous trunks 
for their transportation and money to pay for it. 

Frank and Fred planned some excursions into the neighboring coun- 
try ; and Fred cast a longing eye upon the little river Olona, on which 
Milan stands, in the hope that it might have piscatorial advantages 
which would justify the use of fishing implements. But he could not 
ascertain that the river possessed any finny inhabitants worthy of his 
efforts, and consequently he could not make their pursuit a reason or 
excuse for a longer stay in or around Milan. 

Mention has been made of the importance of Milan in the fifteenth 
and sixteenth centuries as a patron of art. During their stay in the 
city our friends took every opportunity to inform themselves concern- 
ing the art history of the place. After visiting the cathedral Mrs. Bas- 
sett said she was desirous of seeing the famous painting of " The Last 
Supper," by Leonardo da Yinci. She was familiar with the picture 
through the many engravings that have been made of it, and, like all 
visitors to Milan, would not be content until she had looked upon the 
orio^inal, which has a world-wide celebrity. 



THE LAST SUPPER." 



115 



"I am afraid you will be much disappointed with the painting," 
said Frank ; " but of course we will go and see it." 

^' Why do you think I will be disappointed when I see it ?" was the 
question which very naturally followed his remark. 

" Why, because the painting is in a very bad state of preservation," 
was the reply. " The colors are considerably faded, and in places the 
lines of the drawing are 
almost imperceptible." 

" Oh, I supposed it 
was a large painting and 
carefully preserved," was 
the reply. " I am glad 
you told me, because I 
would not wish to enter- 
tain high expectations 
about it and then be dis- 
appointed." 

They visited the place 
where the painting is to 
be seen, which is in the 
refectory of an old mon- 
astery. The monastery 
was long ago suppressed, 
and but for the impor- 
tance of the painting it 
contained the refectory 
would not have been pre- 
served in its present condition. The painting was done in oil-colors 
upon a wall, and therefore it cannot be removed. The room is low and 
by no means dry, and there does not seem to have been any serious 
care taken of the picture until comparatively recent times. The lower 
part of the centre of the picture has been injured by the cutting 
through of a doorway ; but this mutilation, though unfortunate, has 
not injured the painting so much as has the dampness of the w^alls. 
Anv one who is not a thorouo^hlv trained student of art can obtain a 
better idea of what the painting originally was by the contemplation of 
a good engraving or other reproduction, rather than from the picture 
itself. 

While they were looking at the picture Mrs. Bassett expressed her 
surprise that the artist had not painted it upon canvas, so that it could 




THE LAST SUPPER. — [Pen-drawing of the tenth century.] 



116 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

be moved about from one place to another, and put in the best position 
for seeing it. 

" Painting on canvas," replied Frank, '' was not so generally prac- 
tised in Da Vinci's time as it is at present. The earliest form of picto- 
rial art was upon walls, as we find by reference to the paintings in 
Egypt, of which by far the greater portion are upon the walls of tombs 
and temples, or in other places where their removal is an impossibility. 
Painting on slabs of stone followed that of painting on solid wall, and 
then came the practice of painting on boards or panels. It is said that 
painting on canvas was introduced in Venice, and carried on there for a 
considerable time before it was adopted in other parts of Italy." 

" When did the artists first begin painting in oils ?" Mary asked. 

" That is a difficult question to answer," said Frank, " and one about 
which there has been a great deal of discussion. The exact period at 
which oil painting was introduced is a matter of considerable doubt. 
Some of the best authorities attribute it to Jan Van Eyck, a Flemish 
painter who was born at Maaseyck about the year 1390. He and his 
brother were the first who attained to great success in oil-painting. 
They mixed their pigments with drying -oil and resin, and the few 
paintings of his that are extant at the present time display a freshness 
and brilliancy of color which is not equalled by any works of the same 
period. 

''Other authorities say that oil-painting was known and practised 
previous to Van Eyck's time, but they generally give him credit for 
great improvements in the art. Before his day it was the custom, par- 
ticularly in Italy, to paint with gums, or other substances of an adhe- 
sive nature, dissolved in w^ater. That is the way in which most of the 
ancient paintings were made. Where they have been made and kept 
in a dry place they have not suffered materially ; but unfortunately the 
gums are affected b}^ dampness, and hence a great number of the paint- 
ings thus made have suffered more or less seriously." 

"Thank you very much," said Mrs. Bassett. "I've learned some- 
thing to-day that I did not know before. Was Leonardo Da Vinci a 
native of Milan ?" 

" He was not born at Milan," was the reply, " but at Vinci, near 
Florence, in 1452. In his early youth he became the pupil of a painter 
of Florence, and so rapid was his progress that he very soon surpassed 
his master. He left Florence about 1481 and went to Milan, but before 
doing so he produced several works which gave him wide reputation. 
He entered the service of the Duke of Milan, so his biographers say, and 



LEONARDO DA VINCI. 



117 



was made the director of an academy of arts and sciences founded by 
the duke about 1485. The picture before us is said to have been painted 
about 1499, and to have been the most famous of all his works. He re- 
turned to Florence shortly after finishing this painting, remained there 
several years, and afterwards returned to Milan, where he remained two 
or three years. Then he went to Eome for a while, and subsequently 




HUBERT AND JAN VAN EYCK. 



entered the service of Francis I. of France, and went with him to Paris. 
He did not accomplish anything of importance from the time he left 
Italy. His death occurred in France about 1519." 

" It is a wonder that this painting has been preserved at all," said 
Mrs. Bassett, as Frank concluded this little biographical sketch of the 
great artist. " Three hundred years in this low room with its damp 
walls is a long time for it to remain even in the state in which we find it." 

" Three hundred years would be a very short time," said Fred, " on 
the walls of the tombs and temples of Egypt. There we see paintings 
that were made three or four thousand years ago, with the coloring just 



118 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



as fresh now as it was the day it was put on. Dampness is certainly 
a terrible thing for works of art of all kinds." 

There was further talk on this subject during the rest of the stay in 
the refectory, but we will not attempt to repeat it. Then Mrs. Bassett 
suggested that she wished to go to the picture-gallery in the Brera, 
thrPalace of the Arts and Sciences, where there are two excellent 
copies of "The Last Supper." She thought she would fully appreciate 
those pictures, now that she had seen the famous original and learned 
something about the history of the artist who painted it. The party 
went from the refectory to the Brera, and this visit was the last of their 
art studies in Milan, 'it was near the close of the day preceding the 
departure of the party by the train for Genoa, and left a pleasing 
memory in the minds of all. 




" ADORATION OF THE LAMB." — [Jan Van Eyck.] 



CHAPTEE YII. 

FROM MILAN TO GENOA.— PAVIA AND ITS HUNDRED TOWERS.— THE BATTLE OF 
PAVIA. — FRANCIS L; HIS HISTORIC WORDS.— PASSING THROUGH THE APEN- 
NINES.— FIRST VIEW OF GENOA; POSITION OF THE CITY; ITS HISTORY AND 
IMPORTANCE.— " THE SUPERB."— GENOA'S PART IN THE CRUSADES. — STATUE 
OF COLUMBUS; OTHER MEMORIALS OF THE GREAT NAVIGATOR; WHERE WAS 
COLUMBUS BORN? MARY'S DESCRIPTION OF THE STATUE.— THE MUNICIPAL 
PALACE, AND WHAT WAS SEEN THERE.— LETTERS OF COLUMBUS.— PAGANINI'S 
VIOLIN; ANECDOTES OF THE GREAT MUSICIAN. — AN EXCURSION IN THE 
HARBOR OF GENOA.— COMMERCIAL IMPORTANCE OF GENOA.— ITALIAN STEAM- 
SHIPS ; PECULIARITIES OF THEIR MANAGEMENT.— BANK OF ST. GEORGE.— THE 
SAINT AND THE DRAGON. 



F 



KOM Milan to Genoa is a ride 



by railway of about five hours, 
and our friends took an early train 
in order to enjoy the scenery of the 
Apennines. They passed through 
Pavia, but did not stop there. Mrs. 
Bassett asked if it was famous for 
anything, and Frank explained that 
it was a very old city (the Ticinum 
of the Komans), and subsequently 
known as the City of the Hundred 
Towers, owing to its hundred tow- 
ers of defence, many of which still 
exist. Portions of the walls have 
been removed, but there is yet a 
sufficient quantity remaining to give an air of antiquity to the place. 

"Near Pavia," said Frank, "is the famous Certosa, a monastery 
which was founded in 1396. It has suffered various vicissitudes, hav- 
ing been suppressed two or three times, and at one period occupied 
as a military post. It contains some paintings, and the facade of the 
building is greatly admired by architects and artists." 

"I have read somewhere," said Mary, "that a great battle was 
fought near the Certosa of Pavia. What battle was it V 




FRANCIS I. — [From Medal in the British Museum.] 



120 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

" It is known in history," replied Fred, " as the Battle of Pa via." 

" How long ago was it fought ?" the girl next asked. 

" On February 24, 1525, nearly four centuries ago," Fred replied. 
" It was fought between the French under their king, Francis I., and 
the German imperial forces under the Emperor Charles Y. According 
to history, the French King fought with heroic valor, killing no fewer 
than seven men with his own hand ; but he ^vas finally compelled to 
surrender and become a prisoner to the Emperor, who treated him with 
great respect. A phrase in a letter which he wrote after the battle 
to his mother, Louisa of Savoy, became historic." 

^' What is that ?" 

'' ' Tout est perdu fors Vhonneur ■ " (All is lost except honor). 

" I have seen that quoted frequently !" exclaimed Mary. " And was 
he really the author of it, do you suppose ?" 

"About that there is some dispute," Fred responded, "and the 
latest investigation shows that those are not the words he wrote. They 
are now said to have been, 'L'honneur et la vie est saulve^ (Honor and 
life are saved), which is about the same in meaning." 

" Well, it is a good phrase either Avay, and the first form is the best. 
Wouldn't it have been just as w^ell if there had been less investigation 
into the exact nature of his domestic correspondence ?" 

" I certainly think so," was the reply. " The phrase as first given 
has certainly a grand ' ring ' to it, and there are many circumstances 
in these prosaic days when the quotation is an apt one. I would be just 
as well contented if it had remained as it was." 

As the train ^vhich carried the travellers approached the coast, they 
found the country more and more mountainous. Frank explained to 
his mother that they were getting into the range of the Apennines^ 
which have been called the backbone of Italy. In the centre of the 
peninsula they lie about midway from one side to the other, but in the 
neighborhood of Florence they begin to approach the coast, and fairly 
reach it in the neighborhood of Genoa. 

As one nears Genoa from the north the railway line is an example 
of splendid engineering on the part of those who constructed it. In 
some places it stands on lofty embankments overlooking deep valleys 
and ravines, and it passes through several tunnels, one of them being 
upwards of two miles in length, and requiring eight or ten minutes for 
the transit through it. Rivers are crossed over lofty and massive 
bridges, and the scenery in all directions is exceedingly picturesque. 
Here and there rise the walls of old castles, and nestled among the 



IN SIGHT OF GENOA. 



121 



mountains one sees numerous villages. The highest point of the line is 
1200 feet above the sea-level, and it forms the water-shed between the 
Adriatic and the Mediterranean, or natural dividing line. 

On passing the range of the Apennines our friends found them- 
selves in sight of a series of towers which crown the summits of the 




VIEW OF GENOA, FROM THE HEIGHTS ABOVE THE CITY. 



hills to the left, and belong to the old fortifications of Genoa. Just as 
the train had given a glimpse of the light-house and citadel of the old 
port it disappeared into a tunnel, where its speed was gradually 
slackened for the reason that the terminal station lay just beyond the 
point of exit from beneath the rugged hills. 

'' I suppose," said Mrs. Bassett, " that Genoa has a surname. Just as 
Milan has. You told us that Milan was called La Grande. What do 
they call Genoa, or haven't they any name for it ?" 

" Oh, they call Genoa La Superba, or ' The Superb,' owing to its beau- 
tiful situation and its many palaces of white marble. As we go about it 
you will observe that it is very picturesquely placed on a slope which 
rises above the sea in a wide semicircle. Genoa has been a famous 



122 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

place for a great many centuries. It was an important port in the time 
of the Romans, and was a flourishing city all through the Middle Ages. 
It has had a variety of governments, and was the great rival of Venice 
and Pisa for a long time. A republic was established here in the tenth 
century, presided over by doges, very much after the manner of the 
Republic of Yenice and quite as tyrannical." 

" When the armies of Europe organized the Crusades to wrest the 
holy places of Palestine from the possession of the infidels, Genoa 
joined in the enterprise and obtained her full share of the spoils. She 
acquired valuable possessions in the East in the same way that Yenice 
did, and not a few of the battles between Yenice and Genoa arose from 
rival claims to these possessions. We will learn more about the history 
of Genoa as we look around the city." 

After they had taken their rooms at the hotel, the party followed 
its usual custom of utilizing the remaining portion of the day in a 
general view of the place, and taking in whatever of the standard 
sights were convenient or came in their way. 

Like most Americans, Mrs. Bassett had a particular interest in 
Genoa, because it was the home of Columbus, and one of the first 
things that she intimated a desire to see was the statue erected in his 
honor. Every American traveller is at once taken by the guides to 
this monument, and is expected to go into ecstacies about it. It is 
said that when the hotel -keepers and others who make their living 
from the stranger within the gates are uncertain whether an English- 
speaking visitor is from Great Britain or the land beyond the Atlantic, 
an infallible test for ascertaining his nationality is to mention the 
statue of Columbus. Should he express a desire to see it, he is cer- 
tainly an American ; but if he intimates that the statue of Columbus 
possesses no interest whatever for him, he is set down as a Briton. 

The statue was visited early in their stroll, and it is proper to say 
that all were glad to have seen it. Aside from its historical interest, 
it is certainly an admirable work of art. Mary wrote a description of 
it, which we are permitted to insert here in her words. 

" The monument stands on a square pedestal, and was erected in 
1862. It consists entirely of white marble, and is surrounded by alle- 
gorical figures representing ' Religion,' ' Geography,' ^ Strength,' and 
' Wisdom.' These figures are in a sitting posture, on blocks at the four 
corners of the pedestal, and between them, on each of the four sides, 
are reliefs and scenes from the history of Columbus with an inscription 
of dedication. These reliefs represent the following events in his life : 



STATUE OF COLUMBUS. 



123 



Columbus before the Council of Salamanca; Columbus taking formal 
possession of the New World ; his reception by the Spanish sovereigns 
on his return from the discovery ; and, lastly, the closing incident of his 
life, Columbus in chains. The great navigator is represented by a colos- 
sal figure, with its left hand resting upon an anchor. By his side there 
is an allegorical figure of an Indian, half kneeling and half sitting, 
and holding a cross or crucifix in the right hand. The pedestal below 




CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. — [From the Venetian mosaic] 



the feet of Columbus is adorned with ships' prows — I mean prows of 
ships of the period in which he lived. Altogether, it impresses us as a 
very handsome and admirably designed monument. I bought some 
photographs of it at a shop close by, and am glad to have them. 

" Opposite to the monument is the Palace of Columbus, which has 
an inscription to the effect that Christopher Columbus, the Genoese, 
discovered America. There was no need of telling us that, as we had 



124 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



heard it before ; but the relation of the house to the famous navigator 
we could not clearly make out. They endeavored to convey the im- 
pression that Columbus was born in that house. 




MONUMENT TO COLUMBUS, GENOA. 



" There is a good deal of doubt as to whether he was born at Genoa, 
or somewhere else. They showed the house which they claim was his 
birthplace, and indicated the room where he first saw the light ; but 
this is disputed by no fewer than seven other cities. This number, 



WHERE WAS COLUMBUS BORN? 



125 



added to Genoa, makes eight birth- 
places in all for Columbus, which 
is one more than the poet Homer 
is said to have had. Perhaps you 
would like to know all the places 
in which Columbus was born ; here 
they are : Genoa, Cogeleto, Savo- 
na, Nervi, Piacenza, Cuccaro, Mon- 
terosso, and Quinto. 

"There are still some other 
cities and villages that put in their 
claims, and they are not by any 
means confined to this region. 
The last claimant is the City of 
Calvi, in the Island of Corsica, 
which pretends to possess the orig- 
inal register of the birth and bap- 
tism of Columbus in that place. 

" Frank suggests that as long 
as we are in Genoa we must not 
admit any doubt on our part that 
this city was the birthplace of our 
hero; and when we go to other 
places that claim him we must 
be equally discreet, so far as they 
are concerned. We must observe 
the same prudence that is due from 
visitors to Chicago and St. Louis 
regarding the relative claims of 
each of those cities as to its com- 
mercial greatness and supremacy. 

" There is little doubt, however, 
that the father of the great Chris- 
topher lived here at one time, and 
carried on the occupation of wool- 
comber. Wool - combing is an in- 
dustry to-day, as it was in the fif- 
teenth century, and we have seen a man working at the combing-bench, 
just as the father of Columbus may have been engaged while his son 
was growing to manhood. Many of the streets of the city have been 




REPUTED BIRTHPLACE OF COLUMBUS. 



126 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



changed considerably during the past four hundred years, and if 
Columbus could revisit the earth it is quite possible that he would not 
be able to make his way readily through Genoa. The street on which 
the house stands where he is said to have been born is a narrow one, 
and the building is certainly very old. Of course we went to see it, and 
paid the fee required for our admission ; and we came away with the 
impression that the owners derive a handsome revenue from the exhi- 
bition of the place, and ought to be very thankful to Columbus for the 
business he created for them by being born there." 

The next morning our friends went to the Municipal Palace, partly 
in order to see the building, which stands upon a slope of ground, and 
was originally known as the Palazzo Doria Tursi. The building con- 
tains some admirable frescos and paintings, but the great objects of 

interest to the strangers were the memori- 
als of Columbus. These consisted of several 
portraits, one of them being in mosaic, some 
autograph letters, and the Codice Diplo- 
matico, which is sometimes called the Port- 
folio. The mosaic portrait of Columbus 
was a present from Venice, and was prob- 
ably sent as a peace-offering on the part 
of that republic when she was annexed to 
the Kingdom of Italy. It is enclosed in a 
magnificent frame of ebony inlaid with 
ivory, and both the portrait and frame are 
admirable specimens of the art for which 
Venice was and still is famous. 

"The Codice Diplomatico," said Fred, 
who had undertaken to write an account 
of their visit to the Municipal Palace, " contains authenticated copies 
of the various royal letters - patent which confer titles and digni- 
ties upon Columbus, and also some important letters and public doc- 
uments. They were beautifully engrossed on parchment, and are 
very carefully preserved. Among the pubhc documents is the famous 
Bull of Partition issued by Pope Alexander VL, which established an 
imaginary line from the North Pole to the Soutli Pole. This line was 
to be the boundary determining the question of territorial right be- 
tween Spain and Portugal regarding all future discoveries made by 
Spanish and Portuguese navigators. Let me remark, by the way, that 
Pope Alexander VI. was a man peculiarly adapted by his temperament 




COAT OF ARMS OP COLUMBUS. 



RELICS OF COLUMBUS. 



127 



to issue an autocratic decree of this sort. According to history, he was 
distinguished for profligacy, inhumanity, and unscrupulous ambition. 
He became pope in 1492, the year of the discovery of America by 
Columbus, and it was owing to a dispute about the possessions in the 
newly - discovered lands that this 
famous bull was issued. He be- 
longed to the Borgia family, which 
was famous, or infamous, for its 
practice of poisoning its guests at 
banquets to which they had been 
invited. Some historians assert 
that Alexander YI. died from the 
effects of a poison which he and 
his son Borgia had designed for 
certain of their guests at a ban- 
quet, but which was taken by mis- 
take by the Pope himself. 

"There are three autograph 
letters of Columbus, two of which 
are kept in a marble column sur- 
mounted by a bust of Columbus, 
and another is enclosed in a glass- 
case, so that it may be examined 
without being handled. Professor 
Packard, or any other teacher of 

penmanship, would say at once that Columbus needed a course of lessons 
in the calhgraphic art. He certainly did not write very legibly ; but 
perhaps writing was not in his line, his hand being more accustomed 
to the sword than to the pen. One of his letters is addressed to the 
Directors of the Bank of St. George, at Genoa, and the other two were 
written to the Genoese Ambassador at the Spanish court. We did 
not attempt to read them, partly because we couldn't, and partly be- 
cause we thought it would not be any advantage to us to do so. The 
peculiarity of the letters is the signature, or, rather, the superscrip- 
tion above the signature. Instead of saying, ' Yours very truly,' or 
' Yery respectfully yours,' he puts down the following, letters : ■ s • 

" There has been a good deal of discussion in regard to the x m y 
meaning of this peculiar way of ending a letter. One rendering is ' Sup- 
plex servus altissimi Salvatoris Xristi, MaricB^ Yosejphi^ which, means, 
•rendered into English. ' The humble servant of Christ, the Supreme 




A GENOESE WOOL-COMBER. 











AUTOGRAPH LETTER OF COLUMBUS TO THE BANK OP ST. GEORGE, GENOA. 



SCRAPS OF HISTORY. 



129 



Saviour, and of Mary and Joseph.' There is said to be fairly good rea- 
son for beUeving that this interpretation of the letters is correct, be- 
cause it is known that one of the objects of Columbus in making his 
voyages of discovery was to spread the Christian rehgion, and to re- 
build, by means of the wealth that 
would come to him from his dis- 
coveries in new lands, the Holy 
Sepulchre at Jerusalem. 

" According to some historians 
this was the sole object of his voy- 
ages, although this extreme relig- 
ious character of the man hardly 
agrees with the circumstance which 
some historians have brought to 
light : that he was not only a mis- 
sionary to carry religion into un- 
known lands, but was also a slave- 
trader and a pirate. It must be 
remembered, however, that slave- 
trading and piracy in the days in 
which Columbus lived were occu- 
pations in which a gentleman 
might honestly engage without 
any very serious strain to his con- 
science. Even as late as the days 
in which some of us live the bless- 
ings of slavery are seriously set 
forth in the civilizing and Chris- 
tianizing of races that but for this 
benign and divine institution would 
remain in a condition of barbaric 
ignorance and depravity. 

'' It is quite possible that Colum- 
bus may have considered himself 
a missionary to carry Christianity 
into unknown lands for the reason 
that his praBnomen of Christo- 
pher implies 'Christ-bearer' {Chris- 

to-ferens). The name comes from a saint who suffered martyrdom in the 
third century, and is said to have received his appellation in conse- 

9 




PAGANINI S VIOLIN. 



130 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 




quence of having borne the Christ- 
child across a river where he was 
doing penance by carrying pil- 
grims who were on their Avay to 
Rome. Perhaps Columbus may have 
thought that a similar duty be- 
longed to him, and was impelled to 
devote his energies to the exten- 
sion of the faith in which he was. 
born and reared. 

"We lingered for some time in 
contemplation of the souvenirs of 
the great navigator, and then turned 
our attention to other things. The 
custodian led the way to a glass- 
case in which was a viohn ; it 
seemed nothing remarkable, and we 
naturally wondered what it was. 

said the custodian, ' that 



is the violin of the celebrated Paga- 
nini. He was the greatest and most 
famous violinist that ever lived.' 
"We had all heard of Paganini, 
and naturally his vi- 
olin was an object 
of interest. Accord- 
ing to all accounts 
he was a wonderful 
musician, and Genoa 
has great reason to 
be proud of him. He 
was born here in 
1784, and received 
lessons in his child- 
hood from all the 
best teachers. He 
began to play in 
public concerts at 
the age of nine, and 



BUST, AUTOGRAPH LKTTERS, AND PORTFOLIO OF COLUMBUS. 



by his wonderfu 



PAGANINI AND HIS VIOLIN. 



131 



ability he used to excite his audiences to an extraordinary degree. 
Until he was fifteen years old he was under the management of his 
father, but at that age he left home and began business on his own ac- 
count. He received enormous sums of money for his performances, and 
an equally enormous amount of admiration and flattery. The latter 
seemed to turn his head, and it was his misfortune that he was unable 
to keep any of the money that came into his hands. 

" Paganini was a persistent and reckless gambler, and notwithstand- 
ing his very large earnings he was constantly in debt and harassed by 
his creditors. He was as avaricious as he was reckless ; he exacted the 
largest possible fees from those who wished to engage him, and imme- 
diately on receiving them rushed to the gaming-table. He visited all 
the principal cities of Europe, and everywhere created the wildest ex- 
citement. Some of his performances have never been equalled by any 
other violinist of any age or country. 

" One writer says of him that he was a whole orchestra at once. 
He would play at sight the most difficult compositions. He improvised 
with the greatest rapidity, and 
surpassed every other man that 
ever lived in his ability of execu- 
tion on a single string. In his 
hands the violin which we are 
contemplating in this glass-case 
could represent all the passions 
and feelings of which the human 
mind is capable. Those who lis- 
tened to him say that he could 
represent the song of a bird or 
the braying of a donkey with al- 
most perfect accuracy. 

"A story is told of Paganini 
that he arrived one night at Frank- 
fort, and stopped at a tavern out- 
side the gate of the city. Eest- 
less and unable to sleep, he took 
his viohn, went to the open win- 
dow, and began playing one of 
his remarkable medleys. The per- 
formance aroused the whole neighborhood. Sighs and groans and the 
crying of infants came from the strings of the instrument, and then 




NICOLO PAGANIMI. 



132 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

in quick succession were bursts of laughter and the sounds which one 
hears in a barn-yard concert. Every window within hearing distance 
was opened. People peered out to ascertain what was the cause of 
the disturbance, and finally some of the lodgers in the tavern went 
to Paganini's room, rapped violently on the door, and asked the mean- 
ing of all the noise. He explained that he was unable to sleep, and 
was simply amusing himself by a little practice on his violin. 

" One of the famous musicians of the time said that Paganini's phe- 
nomenal power was a mystery. He remarked that ' you might imagine 
the most wonderful effects that one could produce on the violin, and 
Paganini would then surpass your highest expectations.' 

'' It is related of the violinist that he went to Nice in the year 1839 
in the hope of restoring his health, which had been greatly shattered ; 
he derived no benefit from his sojourn there, but day by day grew 
steadily weaker. One evening when he had been sleeping very quietly 
for an hour or more, he waked and perceived an unusual light coming 
through the windows of the room. He asked what it was. 

" ' It is the moon, maestro ; it is the moon,' said the attendant. 

" ' Oh, the moon ! Draw aside the curtains, and -let me see it once 
again before I die. It will be my last view of it.' 

" The attendant drew aside the curtains, and Paganini raised him- 
self upon his elbow, so that he could gaze out through the trees and see 
the moonlight as it was reflected from the waters of the Mediterranean. 
He looked steadily for a time, then smiled and asked the attendant to 
bring him his violin. The violin was brought ; he took it gently in his 
hands, kissed it tenderly, and then began playing Avhat the attendant 
describes as a plaintive, dirge-like air, which sounded like a requiem. 
Fainter and fainter grew the notes, and as the sound ceased the musi- 
cian dropped the violin from his hand, fell back upon the pillow, and 
was dead before the attendant was aware. 

" We asked if there was any doubt about this being the violin of 
Paganini, and were assured there was none. The instrument was pre- 
sented to the city by the son of the far-famed musician, and is carefully 
treasured as a memorial of the greatest and most remarkable violinist 
the world has ever known." 

From the Municipal Palace our friends took a stroll in the direction 
of the harbor, which presents some very animated and picturesque 
scenes. The harbor of Genoa, like most of the ports of the Mediter- 
ranean, is not of great extent, and is generally crowded with shipping. 
There is a series of arcades along the front of the city, under a lofty 



HARBOR OF GENOA. 



133 



wall that separates the harbor from the houses, and these arcades are 
the lounging places of the boatmen, sailors, fishermen, and all others 
who make a living from the harbor and sea about it. 

Frank engaged a boat, and the party was rowed out to the entrance 
of the harbor in order to obtain a good view of the city. The view 




GENOESE VESSELS OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 

was an excellent one, and amply repaid our friends for the trouble they 
had taken to obtain it. The whole sweep of the semicircle on which 
Genoa stands was embraced in the scene. In the background were the 
mountains, making a sharp outline against the clear sky ; while away 
on either hand was the rugged shore, dotted with villages and single 
houses, and seamed here and there with carriage-roads and railways. 



134 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

The light-house formed a conspicuous landmark, and its height and 
prominence indicated its importance in guiding the mariner into one of 
the most prosperous and picturesque ports of the Italian coast. 

While they were making their excursion on the water, Frank told 
his mother that Genoa was the starting-point of several important 
lines of steamers. " You can go from here," he said, " to many parts of 
the earth upon Italian steamships. I don't know that you could travel 
under the Italian flag to ' Greenland's icy mountains,' but you can 
certainly go to ' India's coral strand,' as there is a line of steamers 
from Genoa extending to all the principal ports of Asia. Steamers 
from Genoa run to Australia, to North and South America, to London 
and Liverpool, and to all the principal ports of the Mediterranean and 
the Black Sea, and there are several coasting lines." 

Mrs. Bassett asked if the steamers were as comfortable for passen- 
gers as those of the principal English and French companies. 

'' That is a question," Frank replied, " which I would hardly under- 
take to answer in the aiflrmative, nor yet would I give it a very posi- 
tive negative. Fred and I have been several times on board Italian 
steamers. Some of them we have found very comfortable, but this 
cannot be said of all. A peculiarity of the service on nearly all the 
Italian lines is that the food department is not managed by the steam- 
ship company itself, but is farmed out to contractors. A firm of hotel- 
keepers here in Genoa has the contract for feeding the passengers on 
several lines of steamships whose headquarters are here. 

" The contractors purchase the provisions, furnish the cooks, stew- 
ards, and chief stewards, and receive a stipulated portion of the money 
which has been paid to the company by the passengers. One practical 
effect of this system is that there is nearly always a disagreement be- 
tween the captain of the ship and the chief steward. The steward 
receives from his employers an allowance of money for feeding the 
passengers. Of course it is his duty to be as economical as possible, 
while on the other hand the captain desires, if he thinks of the matter 
at all, that the passengers should be liberally supplied. Not infre- 
quently it happens that the warfare between the two worthies is so 
bitter they are not on speaking terms ; and I have heard a chief steward 
talk to a captain in a manner that would never be allowed on board an 
English steamer nor on an American one. 

" I remember on one occasion," Frank continued, " that the captain 
was receiving a visit from some friends on shore w^hile the steamer on 
which Fred and I were passengers was spending a few hours in port. 



ON AN ITALIAN STEAMSHIP. 



135 



IVhen the time for dinner arrived the captain invited his friends to 
remain, and sent orders to have places reserved for them at the table. 
The man who brought the message to the chief steward was sent back 
to tell the captain that the places would not be reserved and the extra 
meals furnished unless the captain would assume the responsibihty of 
paying for them. The message was delivered in presence of the visit- 
ors, who thereupon concluded to go ashore at once. One of them 
pretended to remember an engagement which would prevent his remain- 
ing to dinner ; the others accompanied him, and there was no occasion 
for reserving the places at the table. The captain was in a great rage, 
and Fred and I listened to an ex- 
change of compliments between him 
and the chief steward, in which the 
Italian language seemed to be un- 
dergoing a very severe strain." 

As Frank paused, Fred took up 
the thread of conversation, and re- 
marked that the business of farm- 
ing out matters on board the Italian 
steamers was not confined to the 
feeding of the passengers. 

" Yes, that's so," said Frank; '' I 
didn't think of it for the moment. 
Tell about that little incident which 
occurred at Constantinople." 

Fred nodded assent, and then re- 
lated the following interesting story : 

" We were leaving Constantinople on a steamer that was advertised 
to start at eleven o'clock, and we were on board considerably before 
the hour, according to our usual custom." 

" Yes, I'm aware of that," interposed Mary. " I don't believe you 
and Frank ever missed a steamship or a railway train, or any other 
public conveyance, through any fault of your own." 

" ^or have we," said Fred, in response, " and what's more we don't 
intend to. And I am very sure," he added, in a tone of admiration as 
he returned his cousin's glance, " that no one of this present party is 
ever likely to do so. But this is not telling about the incident Frank 
hinted at a moment ago." 

"Excuse me for interrupting," said Mary; "but the thought oc- 
curred to me, and I knew you wouldn't be vexed if I expressed it." 




ANCIENT SEAL OF GENOA. 



136 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

" ^o vexation at all," said Fred. " We have our vanities, like the 
rest of mankind, and I don't see why we shouldn't be just a little proud 
of our habit of promptness when travelling. 

" Well, as I was saying, we were on board the steamer before eleven 
o'clock, the hour at which she was advertised to sail. Eleven o'clock 
came, but there were no signs of moving. Smoke was pouring from the 
steamer's funnel, and the waste steam was angrily hissing from the 
pipe ; occasionally the engines pulsated just a little, as if the engineer 
was trying them to see that they were all right. Ten, twenty, and 
thirty minutes passed in this way. We didn't mind the delay particu- 
larly, as we were enjoying the splendid panorama presented from the 
harbor of Constantinople, which takes in all the range of Stamboul, 
Galata, and Pera, together with the Isles of the Princes. 

" It was a little more than half -past eleven when we saw the engi- 
neer come from below and proceed to the captain's room on deck, 
where the captain was talking with two or three gentlemen who had 
come out from shore. The engineer broke into the conversation with- 
out any apology to his superior by saying : 

" ' It is half an hour after the starting time, captain. I was ready 
at eleven o'clock, when we were to start.' 

" ' Go back to your post,' said the captain. ' I'll give the order 
when I am ready to leave ; I'm commander here.' 

ii ' Yery well,' said the engineer, ' I was ready to leave at eleven 
o'clock. You know that I have a certain allowance of coal for making 
the voyage, and here I have been burning coal for half an hour, and 
the ship lying still. I will report this to the Direction.' 

" ' Go back to your post and tend to your business !' said — or, rather^ 
roared — the captain. 

'' ' Yery well,' was the reply, ' I've nothing more to say ; but I'll 
report this.' And with that he returned below. 

" The captain appeared to be very angry, and as independent as he 
was ill-tempered ; but we observed that his friends were very quickly 
hustled over the side into the boat which was waiting for them, and 
in five minutes the steamer was under way." 

By the time these little stories had been told our friends were back 
at the landing-place, coming ashore close to the Doga?ia, or custom- 
house. Frank called attention to the solidly constructed building in 
which that establishment is situated. 

'' That is a very interesting building," said Frank. " Observe that 
marble relief over the door, representing St. George and the Dragon." 



BANK OF ST. GEORGE. 



137 



"Yes, I see it," said Mrs. Bas- 
sett ; " but what have St. George 
and the Dragon to do with the 
custom-house? Does St. George 
with his spear symbolize the cus- 
tom-house inspector, and the Drag- 
on the unfortunate victim whose 
trunks are examined in search of 
dutiable frocks and dresses f 

"Not exactly that," replied 
Frank ; "in fact, they have noth- 
ing whatever to do with the cus- 
tom-house. The building that you 
see is the old Bank of St. George, 
of Genoa — one of the most famous 
financial institutions that the civil- 
ized world has ever known." 

"I wonder how they came to 
name it after St. George," queried 
Mary, "and what relation he had 
to the business of banking ?" 

"He didn't have any acquaint- 
ance with banking that I know 
of," replied Frank, "as he lived 
before banking institutions were 
known or thought of." 

"Please tell us about St. 
George," interrupted Mrs. Bassett. 

" I know about him," said Mary ; 
" but his history is mixed up with 
a good deal that is mythical. The 
stor}^ is that he was a Christian 
soldier of Cappadocia, and was put 
to death in the year 303. He was 
venerated both in the Eastern and 
"Western churches, and held in spe- 
cial respect as the patron of chiv- 
alry, which led to his adoption as 
the tutelary saint of England. He 
is honored as a martyr, and the 




ON A SIDE STREET IN GENOA. 



138 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



story goes that he was put to death during the persecution under the 
Emperor Diocletian. The Enghsh soldiers chose him as their patron 
during the first crusade, and he has been regarded as the guardian 
saint of England from the time of Edward III. He was canonized 
by the Church about the year 49-i, and ever since that time has been 
fully recognized in the calendar of saints." 

" What was the origin of the story of the fight with the dragon ?" 
Mrs. Bassett asked, as Mary paused. 

"I cannot answer that," said Frank; "and the same question has 
troubled a great many historians ever since the invention of the art of 




ITALIAN SOFA AND TAPKBTRY OF THK SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 



printing. He is the patron saint of Eussia as well as of England. The 
story about his slaying the dragon is thought to be the invention of a 
much later date than the period in which he lived, and some historians 
think it is symbolical of the triumph of Christianity over the powers of 
darkness. The legend is, that the dragon Was sent by a magician to 
devour a certain princess, and the saint espoused the cause of the prin- 



ST. GEORGE AND THE DRAGON. 



139 



cess, and succeeded in killing the monster. The existence of dragons 
was fully believed long after the days in which St. George lived. In 
fact, the dragon is soberly described in works of natural history pub- 
lished in France and England within 
the last two hundred years." 

" I know," said Mrs. Bassett, " that 
the dragon is often alluded to in the 
Bible. I have heard that it is sup- 
posed by some to be a crocodile, and 
by others to refer to great serpents, 
or, possibly, to wild animals, like the 
lion, tiger, and leopard." 

" Yes," said Frank, " that is the 
belief of historians and commentators 
in reo^ard to the drao^on of the Bible 
and other ancient writings. The drag- 
on of mythology is a fantastic creat- 
ure, and always represented as of 
great size, with wings and thorny 
crest and powerful claws, and a tail 
like that of a snake. Remains of an- 
cient reptiles are found at the present 
time that would furnish excellent 
foundation for the dragon as it exist- 
ed in mythology. But there are drag- 
ons existing to-day, though they are 
not of the kind that are represented 
in the pictures of St. George." 

'' What are the}^ like, I wonder ?" 
queried Mary. ''Please inform us." 

" Oh, they are nothing but tree-hzards," was the reply. " Scientifi- 
cally, they are iguanian lizards, of the sub-family of acrodonts." 

"Excuse me, but I would like to know what an acrodont is," said Mary. 

" It is a lizard whose teeth are implanted in the bony substance of 
his jaws, to which they adhere firmly by the base of the roots. His 
head is triangular, flattened, and covered with small, irregular scales. 
He has the general shape of a lizard, but is distinguished from all other 
reptiles of this order by a horizontal expansion of the skin of the sides 
into a kind of wing, supported chiefly by the first six false ribs, which 
expand horizontally outward with a membrane between them." 




DRACO V0LAN8, OR FLYING-DRAGON, 



140 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



" What use does he make of those wings ? Can he really fly ?" 

"He lives in the trees (in fact, he is a tree-hzard), and feeds upon 
insects. When he moves from one limb to another, or from one tree to 
another, he expands these wings into a sort of parachute, exactly as a 
flying-squirrel expands the membrane at his side." 

" Please don't make any further excursion into natural history," said 
Fred. " Suppose you tell us about the Bank of St. George, and not keep 
us standing here in the street while you are delivering an impromptu 
but very learned lecture on the dragon and his family." 

" All right," said Frank ; " we will adjourn to the nearest cafe, and 
there I will tell you about it." 




THE CAMPO SANTO, GENOA. 



CHAPTEK YIII. 

THE OLDEST BANK OF EUROPE.— THE BANK OF VENICE, AND HOW IT WAS 
FOUNDED.— IMPORTANCE OF THE BANK OF ST. GEORGE; ITS FORTUNES AND 
MISFORTUNES ; EXTENT AND CHARACTER OF ITS BUSINESS.— JOHN LAW AND 
THE MISSISSIPPI BUBBLE.— A BANK WITH AN INDEPENDENT GOVERNMENT.— 
ISLANDS AND PROVINCES HELD AS SECURITIES FOR LOANS.— AN ANCIENT 
BANK-NOTE.— AMONG THE ARCHIVES OF THE BANK.— THE HOLY GRAIL AND 
ITS HISTORY. —THE PALLAVICINI GARDENS. — UNDERGROUND LAKE AND 
GROTTO.— BOAT EXCURSION TO COGOLETO.— ANOTHER BIRTHPLACE OF CO- 
LUMBUS.— PALAZZO DORIA.— FAMOUS FAMILIES OF GENOA.— ANDREA DORIA, 
AND WHAT HE DID.— THE FIESCHI CONSPIRACY AND ITS RESULT. 



MRS. BASSETT asked if the Bank of St. George was the oldest bank 
in the world, and if its antiquity gave it its great reputation. 

" It was not the oldest bank," replied Frank. " In fact, it is diffi- 
cult to say exactly when and where 
the first bank in the world was estab- 
lished. The oldest banking institution 
of Europe, and the one that had the 
longest existence, was the Bank of Yen- 
ice. It was founded in the year 1171 ; 
it owed its existence to the wars in 
which the Republic was engaged, and 
the necessity for the Government to 
be constantly supplied with the means 
necessary for conducting them. 

'' In the year mentioned the Gov- 
ernment of Venice had exhausted all 
its resources, and was obliged to make 

a forced loan from the wealthiest citizens, just as some of the countries 
of Central and South America make forced loans at the present time. 
The making of these loans by the authorities of Venice led to the or- 
ganization of a Chamber, or Department, of Loans, and this, by degrees, 
took the form of a regular banking institution, conducted on the same 




SEAL OF ST. GEORGE. 



142 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



general principles as banks are conducted in these days. One writer 
has said of the Bank of Venice, ' It was for many ages the admiration 
of Europe, the chief instrument of Venetian finance, and the chief facil- 
ity of commerce, not surpassed by 
any European nation.' 

" The peculiarity of the Bank 
of Venice was that when money 
had been deposited in it, it could 
not be withdraAvn, but it might be 
transferred upon the books of the 
bank to any one whom the owner 
of the money designated. These 
bank credits became the means by 
which the financial operations of 
the merchant were conducted, and 
during almost their entire existence 
they were at a premium over coin. 
The same writer whom I quoted 
a moment ago says : ' The people 
of Venice were so well satisfied 
with their bank and the manner 
of its operation that no book, 
speech, or pamphlet has been 
found in which any merchant or 
dweller in Venice ever put forth 
any condemnation of its practice.' " 
" Is the Bank of Venice in existence to-day ?" Mrs. Bassett asked. 
" 'No, it is not," was the reply ; " but it existed for more than six 
hundred years. It was founded, as I told you, in llYl, and had an un- 
broken career down to the overthrow of the Republic in 179Y. The 
termination of the existence of the Bepublic when the French captured 
Venice brought an end to this very famous banking institution." 

As Frank paused, Mary whispered to Fred, and asked if he thought 
they had the same board of directors all the time during the six cen- 
turies of the bank's existence. Fred shook his head with an air of 
incredulity, but made no audible reply. 

" Now we come to the Bank of Genoa," said Frank. " It was pro- 
jected in the year 1345, but it was not in full operation until more than 
fifty years later. It had a harder struggle for existence than the Bank 
of Venice, for it was twice plundered by foreign enemies who had capt- 




PART OF THE FACADE OP THE BANK. 



BUSINESS OF THE BANK OF GENOA. 



143 



ured the city, and the last plundering, which was performed in the year 
1800 by the French under Massena, was so disastrous that the bank 
never recovered from its effects. It differed from the Bank of Venice 
and other banking concerns in having a body corporate with its own 
separate laws, and officers quite distinct from, and independent of, the 
civil authorities of Genoa. It was a government within a government, 
and had a great deal more to do with politics and the policies of the 
time than is the case usually with a banking institution." 




BANK-BILL OF 1522. 



" Did it not conduct a great deal of business which is not usually 
attended to by banks in these modern days ?" Fred asked. 

" Oh yes," was the reply ; " not only did it receive deposits and lend 
money, but it coined money of its own, built churches, palaces, ware- 
houses, and monasteries ; it owned dockyards, built ships, and improved 
harbors ; and if railways had been fashionable in that time it would 
have undertaken to construct all the railways of Europe. It had an 
army and fleet of its own, it built fortifications, had manufactories of 
cannon and small-arms, acquired provinces, and sent the officials to gov- 
ern them. One writer says of it : 'It was a savings-bank, a sinking- 



14:4 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

fund, a revenue-office, a politico-commercial oligarchy that made war 
like merchants and engaged in commerce like kings.' When it was 
founded its principal capital was the national debt of Genoa. It had 
no other security than the faith of the Republic and the honesty of the 
men who managed the bank ; but there was such confidence in its so- 
lidity that its shares were nearly always at a premium and its bills were 
preferred to coin. It received deposits from rich men, including sover- 
eigns of all grades throughout Europe ; it became the residuar}^ legatee 
of great fortunes, and whenever there were general panics growing out 
of wars, pestilences, or other calamities, the bank seemed to prosper in 
nearly every instance ; and it has been said of it that the greater the 
public calamity, the greater was the general faith in the integrity and 
absolute soundness of the Bank of St. George. 

" You have already learned," the youth continued, " about the great 
financial schemes of John Law, and the bursting of the 'Mississippi 
Bubble,' which brought Paris and London to a condition of financial 
stringency rarely known before. During all that time the Bank of St. 
George had the best credit that was to be found in Europe, and as the 
distrust in other moneyed institutions increased there was a great pouring 
of funds into the treasury of this bank. Its credit was absolutely unlim- 
ited, and it possessed the power of being able to draw into its treasury 
all the gold in Genoa at a moment's notice. It was nearly always in 
full accord with the Genoese authorities, and its fleets and armies fought 
side by side with those of the Republic. Sometimes the lands which 
were conquered by the Republic were turned over to the bank as addi- 
tional securities for the credit of the Government, and at other times 
the sovereignty of those lands was given into the hands of the Doge so 
that he might hoist above it the flag of the country, and thus give it 
full protection. This protection was no small matter at a time when 
the Doge of Genoa could dictate terms to the Emperor of Constantino- 
ple, and control the revenues of the greater part of the lands bordering 
the eastern end of the Mediterranean and many of its islands. 

" For a long period the Bank of St. George had full control of the 
custom-house and, in fact, of all the revenues of the Republic. The 
duties upon grain, iron, flax, wine, wood, salt, olive -oil, and, indeed, 
upon nearly all merchandise of every kind, were assigned to the bank as 
a part of its security, and the bank attended to their collection. The 
bank also controlled and collected the taxes on real estate, on ships, 
bankers, provisions, and the like, together with the taxes upon all beasts 
of burden, and everything else throughout the Republic. 



RELATIONS OF THE BANK TO THE GOVERNMENT. 



145 



" How did it happen," Mary asked, " that the Government consented 
that the bank should manage its colonial and other possessions, and ap- 
point the governors to rule over them? One would think that the 
rulers would be very reluctant to do that." 




ARCHIVES OF THE BANK OF ST. GEORGE. 



" That was part of the general policy to secure the bank against 
loss," Frank replied. " Whenever the Republic was in any danger 
from foreign foes the bank came to its relief and supplied whatever 
money was needed. Whenever a loan was made the bank required se- 
curity ; and after it had received all the duties, excises, and other rev- 
•enues of the country the next and most natural step was for the Gov- 

10 



146 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



eminent to give its territorial possessions into the hands of the bank, 
and in giving up those possessions it surrendered all the control and au- 
thority that the Kepublic had over them. One of the possessions that 
was thus given up was the Island of Corsica, with ' all its cities, lands, 
castles, fortresses, forests, forts, rivers, fishing-grounds, hunting-grounds, 
taxes, customs, tolls,' etc. In consequence of this cession Corsica was 
governed by the Bank of St. George or its representatives from the year 
1453 to 1562. In the same way other territories, cities, castles, and 
finally the entire possessions of Genoa in the Levant and along the 
Black Sea, were made over to the bank, and were ably governed." 

" I wonder the bank didn't take possession of the Eepublic and man- 
age it as it chose," Mary remarked. " There must have been a great 
deal of uncertainty as to which was the more powerful, the Government 

or the bank. It reminds me of a 
question I have heard of for a de- 
bating society, as to whether a 
dog wagged his tail or the tail 
wagged the dog." 

" It was thought at one time," 
Frank responded, "that this very 
thing you asked about would hap- 
pen. One of the doges of Genoa 
— Andrea Doria — suggested to the 
bank that there was danger of a 
conspiracy which might bring about 
such a result, whereupon the bank 
handed over to the Government 
all the colonies, and added a large 
grant of money for their government in the future. This was done vol- 
untarily, no threat whatever having been made by the Doge, who was 
on the most friendly terms with the managers of the bank." 

Mrs. Bassett suggested that she would like to see one of the notes of 
the bank, and compare it with an American, English, or French bank- 
note of the present time just as a matter of curiosity. 

" Some of the bills of the bank are still in existence," Frank replied, 
" and are kept as curiosities. The bank did not begin the issue of notes 
until the early part of the sixteenth century. They were written upon 
very thick, firm, heavy paper, and Avere not engraved like the. bank- 
notes of the present day. Fac-similes of these notes can be had here, 
and I will get you one of them which you can take home." 




ST. GEORGE S BALLOT-BOXES. 



BANK-NOTES OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 



14:7 



" Thank you verj^ much," was the reply. 

Frank excused himself, and went to a neighboring shop where pho- 
tographs, books, and stationery were sold, returning in a few minutes 
with a piece of paper that had nothing remarkable in its general ap- 
pearance. It was a fac-simile of a note issued in 1522, and the original 
was evidently written by somebody who was not a first-class penman. 







VIEW IN THE PALLAVICINI GARDENS. 



The date, denomination, and name of the creditor were given upon the 
note. It had been cancelled by drawing a cross over its face with a 
heavy pen, which left no doubt of the fact that cancellation had been 
made. The bank had a rule not to put any note into circulation with- 
out having its equivalent in gold in the treasury, and whenever a bill 
was presented it was paid in coin exactly as a note in the Bank of Eng- 
land is paid to-day on presentation. Mrs. Bassett looked carefully at 
this imitation of an ancient bank-note, and remarked that it would be 
an easy one for counterfeiters of the present day to imitate. 

" Yes, perhaps it would," was the reply ; " but you must remember 
that counterfeiting was not an industry in those days as it is at present. 
Banks were very few in number, and there was little opportunity for an 
expert imitator to exercise his skill upon their notes." 

There was a pause of a few minutes in the conversation, which was 
at length broken by Fred. " It's a very singular circumstance," he re- 
marked, "that this bank was able to maintain its credit through the 
vicissitudes of Genoa, in all the upheavals of the Government, famines 



148 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

and plagues and sieges, and captures and quarrels between rulers, con- 
spiracies, and political convulsions of all sorts. It is certainly very 
strange indeed — at least, it is to me." 

" Not so strange, after all," said Frank. '' There is an example at 
the present day to which I beg to call your attention." 

" Yes ? What is it ? I can't think of any." 

" Why, look at the Bank of France. It was founded, or, at least, a 
bank under that name was founded, in Paris, in 1716. Its title w^as 
afterwards changed to the Koyal Bank, and it continued under that 
name until 1803, when it was placed under its present organization as 
the Bank of France. Just look at all the revolutions and overthrowing 
of government in France since the bank was established, and yet it 
has gone right along with very little trouble, occasionally suspending 
specie payment, it is true, but in no instance when payment has been 
suspended during the present century has the premium on gold been 
more than 1 per cent. France has had disastrous foreign wars and 
disastrous revolutions at home, but its great bank continues on through 
all administrations, and will doubtless continue for a long time to come, 
even should there be other wars and revolutions to interfere with the 
peace and prosperity of the country." 

" That is true," said Fred ; " I had not thought of that. One might 
suppose that if anything could imperil the solidity of a financial institu- 
tion it would be a ^evolution like that of France in 1848, or the up- 
heaval at the time of the Commune in 1871." 

By this time our friends were fully rested, and ready for an inspec- 
tion of the interior of the Bank of St. George. As before stated, the 
building has been occupied in modern days by the custom-house, and 
the greater part of its interior is devoted to the collection of the reve- 
nues that come from commerce. Several rooms, however, are retained 
for the storage of the manuscripts and records pertaining to the history 
of the bank, and they are carefully guarded from theft or injur}^ A 
great deal of history could be found among these papers, and a great 
deal of history has been drawn from them at different times. Our 
friends saw specimens of the notes issued by the bank, together with 
the ballot-boxes which were used in selecting directors from among the 
share -holders. A curious feature of these ballot-boxes is that they 
were in rotary form. The names of the share-holders were written on 
separate slips of paper, and then placed in these boxes, which were 
whirled several ^times in order to mix the papers thoroughly. The 
requisite number of slips were then taken from the boxes, and the names 



THE HOLY GRAIL. 



149 



on these slips constituted the Board of Directors. Thus it happened 
that the management of the greatest banking institution of the time 
Avas selected by lottery. It was probably the case that the list of 
share-holders was carefully examined before the names were placed on 
the slips, to make sure that no individual unsuited for the ofl&cial honor 
should have a chance of election to the office of director. 

While our friends were in the bank, Mary said she had read some- 
where that the celebrated Sacro Catino^ or Holy Grail, w^as in posses- 
sion of the institution, and, if so, 
she would very much like to see 
it. Frank asked the custodian of 
the bank about it, and was told 
that the article in question was in 
the sacristy of the Church of San 
Lorenzo, the Cathedral of Genoa. 
He explained that it was for a 
long time in the possession of the 
bank, which held it as security 
for a loan from the bank to the 
Genoese Government. 

The Holy Grail was captured 
at Csesarea by the Genoese during 
the Crusades, and brought home 

as one of their prizes. It was pawned by the Government to Cardinal 
Fieschi in 1319, and was the basis of bonds which were afterwards 
issued by the cardinal, and became the property of the bank. In this 
way the Holy Grail fell into the possession of the bank, where it re- 
mained for a long time. It was carried to Paris in 1806 by order of 
the French Government, but in 1816 it was restored to Genoa, and has 
since been kept in the sacristy of the cathedral. 

From the building of the old Bank of St. George the party went 
to the cathedral, which was erected in the year 1100 on the site of an 
earlier church ; it has been altered so many times that it presents the 
architecture of at least three different periods. There is a considerable 
quantity of interesting sculpture and paintings in the church ; but the 
objects in which our friends were specially interested were in the sac- 
risty, to which they proceeded at once. In addition to the Holy Grail, 
there is a stone reliquary of the thirteenth century, in which the remains 
of John the Baptist, brought from Palestine during the Crusades, are 
said to be preserved, and other things of less consequence. 




THE HOLY GRAIL. 



150 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

The history of the Sacro Catino (Holy Grail), which has been the 
theme of many poets, is certainly a remarkable one. According to tra- 
dition the cup was originally presented by the Queen of Sheba to King 
Solomon. It is further alleged to be the cup used by our Saviour and 
His disciples at the Last Supper, and it is also said to have been used by 
Joseph of Arimathea, who received within it the blood that flowed 
from the bleeding side of the victim of the crucifixion upon Calvary. 
It was long supposed to have been made of a single emerald ; but it was 
broken during its removal from Paris to Genoa, and discovered to be 
of glass of very line material and wonderful workmanship. 

When our friends had concluded their investigation into the his- 
tory of the famous bank of Genoa, Frank suggested a visit to the 
Yilla Pallavicini, which is in the environs of the city. All enjoyed the 
visit very much, as the gardens belonging to the villa are among the 
finest in Italy. Their extent may be understood when it is borne in 
mind that the walk through the gardens, without allowance for linger- 
ing at any one spot, will consume not less than two hours. 

From several points in the gardens there are beautiful views of the 
mountains, the sea, the coast, and of Genoa the Superb, with its forests 
of masts in the harbor, and the domes and towers and walls rising over 
the sloping hills on which the city is built. On the highest of the 
points in the gardens is a building in mediaeval style crowned by a 
tower which gives a view of great extent. In one part of the garden 
are the remains of an ancient Roman burial-place. Then there is a 
subterranean lake, if a very small sheet of water can be called a lake, 
and it is situated in a grotto from whose roof depend a considerable 
number of stalactites. A boatman was waiting in this little lake to 
ferry the party across it for a consideration, which was gladly paid for 
the novelty of the experience of a boat-ride underground. 

From the grotto there is presented a pretty picture of Genoa and 
the water in front of it, and the strangers lingered as long as their 
time would permit in order to impress this beautiful scene upon their 
memories. Here and tlj.ere in the gardens are kiosks in the Pompeian, 
Turkish, and Chinese styles, together with numerous fountains and an 
obelisk, and also a mausoleum which serves as the place of burial of the 
family to whom the grounds belong. It is needless to say that the 
gardens contain a wonderful collection of flowering plants, and there 
are also many tropical products which one hardly expects to find m a 
place so far to the north as Genoa. Among the things growing in the 
Pallavicini gardens are coffee, vanilla, camphor, pepper, cinnamon. 



ANOTHER COLUMBIAN BIRTHPLACE. 



151 



sugar-cane, and other tropical plants. Some of the growths are ex- 
cellent, but it is not to be expected that the culture of these plants is 
a profitable industry for the owner of the place. 

Fred suggested a visit to Cogoleto, about fifteen miles from Genoa, 
a place that disputes with Genoa and the other cities named in the pre- 




UUGOLETO. 



vious chapter the honor of having been the birthplace of Columbus. 
It can easily be reached by rail, but Fred suggested that the trip might 
be more interesting if they made it by boat, which w-as probably the 
usual w-ay of transit between Genoa and Cogoleto in the time of Colum- 
bus. Fred proceeded alone to the landing-place near the Dogana, and 
bargained for a boat which should take the party to Cogoleto and back 



152 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

again, stipulating that the stay there should not exceed two hours.. 
When his bargain was concluded he stepped around the corner and 
summoned the others, who had been quietly waiting at a convenient 
cafe. A bargain with an Italian boatman or carriage-driver can be 
conducted to much greater advantage if the one who makes it is alone 
instead of having the rest of his party standing about in an attitude of 
expectation, which is sure to increase the price. 

There was a good breeze blowing from the south, which gave them 
a delightful and speedy sail from Genoa to Cogoleto. The party landed 
Avithout difficulty, and strolled through the old town, visiting the house 
which is said to be the birthplace of the great navigator. It is now a 
tavern, and a very poor one at that. Mrs. Bassett remarked that nearly 
all the houses which had been the birthplaces of famous men or women 
in the various parts of Europe that they had visited were now kept as 
taverns and hotels. Frank explained that it was probably due to the 
fact that the fame of a house, being sure to draw a good many visitors, 
would make it more profitable as a place of entertainment than if it 
were used for any other purpose, and, consequently, a tavern-keeper 
could pay a higher rent than any man in another occupation. 

The house is certainly old enough to have been the birthplace, not 
only of Columbus, but of his great-grandfather, and, possibly, of his 
great -great -grandfather as well. It bears the following inscription, 
which Mary says ought to be sufficient proof to any one that the claim 
to the honor in question is well founded : 

"HOSPES, SISTE GRADUxM. FUIT HIC LUX PRIMA COLUMBO ; 
ORBE VIRO MAJORI HEU NIMIS ARCTA DOMUS ! 
UNUS ERAT MUNDUS. 'DUO SUNT,' AIT ILLE. FUERE." 



When the inspection of Cogoleto was completed the party returned 
to the landing-place, and were ready to go back to Genoa ; but circum- 
stances over which they had no control had wrought a change in their 
plans. The wind had risen, and it had also changed its course ; it was 
blowing with disagreeable velocity, and, moreover, it was blowing in 
an almost direct line from Genoa. In returning by boat they would 
have a head-wind nearly all the way, and a wind so strong as to make 
the craft decidedly moist and uncomfortable. Mrs. Bassett intimated 
that it would be preferable to return by rail, whereupon Fred paid the 
boatman the stipulated price for the entire journey, and told him to 
return without them whenever he liked. The boatman thought he de- 



COGOLETO TO GENOA. 



153 



served an extra fee on account of being deprived of their very agreeable 
society on his homeward journey, but he did not get it. 

They took the train from Cogoleto, which carried them very speedily 
to the city. The view from the railway train was fairly good, or might 
have l)een had it not been so much interrupted by tunnels. Mary was 




ANDREA DORIA. 



uncertain as to the number they passed through in their ride of fifteen 
miles between Cogoleto and Genoa, but she thought there were not 
fewer than six of them, and possibly eight or ten. 

When they left the train Frank remarked that it was a good oppor- 
tunity for visiting the Palazzo Doria, which is quite near the station. 



154 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

The palace is one of the objects of interest in Genoa, and was erected 
for Andrea Doria, the famous man who was accounted the first admiral 
of his time, and was called " The Father of His Country." 

The palace is a magnificent building, and Avas presented to Andrea 
Doria in return for his services to the Republic. It has been completely 
renovated during the present century, but during the renovation great 
care was taken to preserve everything in its former shape as far as 
possible. Our friends were admitted by a magnificent staircase and 
through a grand entrance- hall, whence they passed into a corridor 
ornamented with portraits of the Doria family. There is a large saloon 
with a great painting on the ceiling representing Jupiter conquering 
the Titans, and in this picture is a portrait of Andrea Doria, the most 
celebrated member of the family, and Avith him is his favorite cat. 
Frank explained to his mother that Doria had a pet cat which accom- 
panied him on nearly all occasions, except at those times when the pres- 
ence of quadrupeds was positively forbidden by the rules of etiquette 
prevailing in those days, and then it was compelled to stay at home. 

In reply to a question on the part of Mary as to the present owner 
of the property, Fred replied that the Doria family still exists, and the 
palace is owned by them. He added, however, that the owner generally 
lives in Rome, and does not often visit Genoa. 

" Andrea Doria's name has been mentioned several times," said Mrs. 
Bassett ; " I wish you would tell me something about him, as he seems 
to have been intimately connected with the history of Genoa." 

''He was certainly very intimately connected with it," Frank re- 
plied. ''The history of Genoa consists very largely of the struggles 
between the families of Doria, Spinola, Grimaldi, and Fieschi. These 
were the four great families of the Republic, and the Doges, or Presi- 
dents, were generally chosen from one of them. The Doria and Spinola 
families were usually united, and hostile to the other two ; but it some- 
times happened that the alliances were changed. Possibly the Doria 
and Grimaldi famihes might be at war with the others, and possibly the 
Dorias and Fieschis would be on the same side. All these families had 
members who were prominent, at one time or another, in the history of 
Genoa, but the most prominent of all were the Dorias. In that family 
the man who most occupied the eye of the world in the days in which 
he lived, and who did the most towards making the history of his time, 
was Andrea Doria, about whom I will try to tell you." 

"When was he born, and when did he die?" queried Mrs. Bassett. 
" If I knew when he lived it would be a good starting-point." 



ANDREA DORIA. 



155 



"He was born in 1468," was the reply, " and at the time of his birth 
the family was already illustrious. Lamba Doria was admiral of the 
Genoese fleet in 1298, when he gained a decided victory over the Ye- 
netians. Paganino Doria was also a famous admiral, and commanded 
the fleets of Genoa in the third war against Venice. In 1352 he fought 
a great naval battle near Constantinople, commanding the Genoese fleet 
in person, while the Yenetian fleet was commanded by Admiral Pisani. 
Doria was victorious then, and two years later he was again victorious 
over the same Yenetian admiral, capturing most of his fleet." 

" Andrea certainly came of an illustrious line," said Mrs. Bassett. 

"But that is not all," replied 
Frank. " Pietro Doria commanded _ 

the Genoese fleet in 1379." 

" He was victorious, too, I sup- 
pose." 

" The fortunes of the family 
seemed to change in his case," was 
the reply, " as he attempted to take 
Yenice, but was defeated and killed 
in January, 1380. Several other 
members of the Doria family at- 
tained distinction in warfare, but 
we will not trouble ourselves about 
them now. Our present interest 
is with Andrea. 

" According to history, Andrea 
Doria entered the service of the 
Pope at the age of eighteen, and 
afterwards that of the King of 
J^aples. Then he made a pilgrim- 
age to Jerusalem, and on his re- 
turn engaged in some of the civil 
commotions which were taking 
place in Genoa. He was unfort- 
unate enough to show his sym- 
pathies on the side which was not 
successful in the contest, and then 

he left the service of his native land and entered that of Francis I., 
King of France. He took with him a considerable portion of the fleet 
of the Kepublic, and never restored it or tried to do so. 




'^^^^^ 



!i!>i{i:W,W:t':'i<m 



■>iras^K§fi«5i.. 



THE SWORD OP DORIA. 



156 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

" The King made him Admiral of France, and at the same time the 
Pope made him Admiral of the Holy Church ; then he felt strong 
enough to attack Genoa. He made the attack, and expelled the rulers 
who then held the city. This put the French in control of Genoa, and 
Doria assumed command as the representative of the King. In 1528 
he suspected that the French court had treacherous designs against his 
country, and accordingly he made a treaty with Charles Y., Emperor of 
Germany, which stipulated for the liberation of Genoa. 

" A condition of this treaty was that he should throw all his influ- 
ence on the side of the Imperial party, which he did. The Emperor 
made him admiral-in-chief of his fleet. Doria entered the port of Genoa 
with the fleet, drove out the French, and took possession ; from that 
time until his death he governed the city in the name of the Emperor, 
and in the imperial interest. He Avas offered the sovereignty of his 
country, but declined it, and said he preferred to rule it as the Minister 
of the Emperor in Italy rather than as an independent sovereign." 

" I suppose," said Mary, " that the liberation of Genoa from French 
control through the aid of the German fleet was what gave him the 
name of 'The Father of His Country,' was it not ?" 

" Yes, it is from that event that his title came ; and he was greatly 
honored and revered by the people, as the gift of the palace well indi- 
cates. According to all accounts, he must have been a man of great 
vigor, as he went with his fleet, at the age of eighty-five, to the relief of 
Corsica, Avhich had been invaded by the French. He commanded in a 
naval battle in , which he was victorious, and his death occurred at 
Genoa in 1560, when he was ninety-two years old. Some authorities- 
give him the age of ninety-five when his adventurous life came to an 
end. I am unable to say which statement is most nearly correct." 

" Wasn't there a conspiracy at one time against him ?" asked Mary. 

"There were several conspiracies during his time," was the reply. 
" In fact, I presume there was hardly a period when there w^as not 
some one endeavoring to drive him from power. The greatest of the 
conspiracies, and the one which came very near success, was made by 
a member of the Fieschi family, with the connivance of the Pope and 
the King of France. It w^as an excellent time for a conspiracy, as the 
Emperor Charles Y. was very much occupied with the German wars, 
Genoa had no doge, the galleys of Doria had been dismantled, and 
were lying without crews in the harbor, there were only a few regular 
troops in the city, and many of the people were discontented with the 
state of affairs and ready for a revolution. 



THE FIESCHI CONSPIRACY. 



15' 



" Fieschi found plenty of men ready to join him in the conspiracy. 
He obtained from the King of France and the Pope several ships fully 
armed and equipped, and which he pretended he was about to use in an 




GIANLUIGI FIESCHI. 



expedition against Algiers. The plans were laid for carrying out the 
conspiracy by taking possession of the city and its harbor, and seizing 
the dismantled ships on a certain night — January 2, 154Y. 

" Some of the conspirators were to seize and hold the gate of the 
city which led in the direction of the Fieschi's castle, so that in case of 
failure they would have a safe line of retreat. Others were to seize the 
gate of St. Thomas, which led to the castle of the Dorias. Others 
again were to capture the arsenal, and the galleys that I have men- 
tioned were to take possession of the dismantled galleys . of Doria. 



158 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



which would be speedily manned by crews that were ready for them. 
The date was fixed at that time in order that large numbers of stran- 
gers might be brought into the city without exciting suspicion, it being 
the custom of the neighboring peasants to flock to Genoa during the 
Christmas festivities. Some of them were dressed as farmers, others as 
sailors or fishermen, and some came in chains as though they were 




FORMING THE CONSPIRACY. 



slaves for the galleys of Fieschi. Many of the conspirators were con- 
cealed in Fieschi's castle, ready to come into Genoa when the signal 
was given that they were wanted in the city." 
'' How did the conspiracy result ?" 



FIESCHI'S SCHEME FAILS. 



159 



" It had an excellent chance of success," replied Frank, " as Andrea 
Doria had no suspicion of what was taking place. The gates were 
seized according to the plans, and an attack was made upon the arsenal 
and the dockyard. Doria's only son was killed by the party that as- 
sailed the Doria Palace, and while this was going on Fieschi went to 
the harbor to capture Doria's ships. While he was passing from one 
ship to another the plank broke under him ; and as he was encumbered 
with his armor he was unable to save himself, he sank to the bottom, 
and was drowned, in spite of efforts to save him. 

" When the news of his death was spread a panic seized the con- 
spirators, and the whole affair came to nothing. No, I am wrong ; it 
came to a great deal for the members of the Fieschi family and the 
others concerned in the plot, as the most of them were put to death. 
Andrea Doria had no further trouble with his enemies after that, and 
died peacefully at the advanced age I have mentioned." 




DEATH OF FIESCHI. 



CHAPTER IX. 



LEAVING GENOA. — RAILWAY ALONG THE COAST. — SPEZIA ; ITS HARBOR AND 
NAVAL STATION. — MARBLE QUARRIES OF CARRARA; HOW THE MARBLE IS 
TAKEN OUT.— PISA; ITS HISTORY AND ATTRACTIONS. — THE CATHEDRAL, AND 
WHAT IT CONTAINS.— GALILEO AND THE SWINGING LAMP.— LEANING TOWER 
OF PISA; OBSERVATIONS CONCERNING IT.— THE BAPTISTERY; ITS BRONZE 
DOORS AND OTHER ORNAMENTS. — CAMPO SANTO. — HOW THE DEAD OF PISA 
REST IN HOLY GROUND. — CHAINS TO CLOSE THE HARBOR. — LUCCA AND ITS 
INDUSTRIES.— THE BATHS OF LUCCA; THEIR ANTIQUITY.— PISTOJ A.— ORIGIN OF 
THE PISTOL.— ARRIVAL AT FLORENCE.— THE CITY OF FLOWERS.— FIRENZE LA 
BELLA.— A FRAGMENT OF HISTORY.— THE PIAZZA DELLA SIGNORIA, AND WHAT 
IT CONTAINS.— LOGGIA DEI LANZL— THE CATHEDRAL AND THE CAMPANILE.— 
GIOTTO AND HIS WORK. 

OUR friends bade farewell 
to Genoa, taking a morn- 
ing train on the railway which 
follows the coast of Italy tow- 
ards the south. Along this part 
of the coast there are many 
promontories which the railway 
line penetrates by means of cut- 
tings and tunnels, so that the 
view on either hand was fre- 
quently interrupted, and some- 
times in a way that was de- 
cidedly annoying. 

"It isn't a bit nice," said 
Mary, " to have your attention 
fixed upon a picturesque hill 




PART OF DOOR OF TIIK CATHEDRAL, PISA. 



with a grand old castle more 
or less in ruins crowning its 
summit, and while you're pon- 
dering upon its possible history have your reverie suddenl}^ interrupted 
by the train darting into a tunnel. If they had appointed me the con- 
structing engineer of this line and given me full powers, I would have 
tried to build it without any tunnels whatever." 



SPEZIA AND ITS HARBOR. 



161 



They passed through several places of no great consequence, and in 
due time arrived at Spezia, a place which has great antiquitj^, as it was 
a flourishing city in the time of the Eomans, who praised the harbor 




for its beauty and extent. The 
harbor is certainly one of the best 
in Italy. The Gulf of Spezia, on 
which the city stands, is formed 
by the bifurcation of a spur of the 
Apennines, and is three and a half : 
miles long by three in width. Its 
western shore is indented by sev- 
eral coves or creeks, five of them 

being deep enough to afford good anchorage for the largest men-of-war. 
The Italian Government, since 1861, has made an important naval 



11 



162 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

station here ; but they were not by any means the first to recognize the 
advantages of the place. Napoleon I. at one time determined to make 
Spezia the chief naval station of the French Empire, but the misfort- 
unes that overtook him shortly after he had formed this intention pre- 
vented the carrying out of his plans. 

Beyond Spezia the train made a brief halt at Sarzana, and about 
twenty miles farther on at Avenza. Frank said Avenza was chiefly 
interesting from something that was not in the city. Mary asked what 
it was, and Fred said he would give up the conundrum. 

" It is the shipping point of the marble of the famous mines at Car- 
rara," was the reply. " Of course you have heard of that marble." 

" Certainly I have," said Mary ; " I have not only heard of it, but we 
have seen a great deal of it. It's a very pure white marble, and I be- 
lieve that when the Italians wish to describe anything as snowy white 
they say it is ' white as Carrara marble.' I wonder how it gets the 
peculiar whiteness that makes it so valuable." 

" The geologists say," Frank responded, " that the marble from Car- 
rara is a white saccharine limestone that was formerly supposed to 
belong to the primitive rocks, but is now known to be a limestone of 
the oolitic period, highly altered by Plutonic action." 

" How far is it from here to the marble quarries ?" queried the girl. 

" About three miles, I believe," said Frank ; " at least, that is what I 
was told by a gentleman who has been there. The town is principally 
built of the inferior qualities of the marble, not from any special fond- 
ness or preference for that stone, but because it is the cheapest stone in 
the neighborhood. The hills around Carrara are composed of this mar- 
ble, but it is not all of the pure white that you see in the finest statues. 
Some of the mines yield finer qualities than the others ; the finest quali- 
ty is known as marmo statuario, or statuary marble." 

" How do they manage to handle the great blocks of marble that 
they bring from the quarries ? Please tell me." 

"They detach the blocks," Frank replied, "in the usual way for 
separating stone from the quarries, and after they are detached rollers 
are placed beneath them. They are drawn out by oxen, long teams 
being hitched to them, and brought from the quarries to the sloping 
road that leads down to the harbor, and in some cases they are lifted 
out by steam-power. There are twenty or thirty quarries in the vicin- 
ity of the town, but not more than six or seven furnish the fine mar- 
ble that is used for statuary. There are several large establishments 
fitted up with modern machinery for sawing the marble into blocks 



MAKBLE QUARRIES OF CARRARA, 



163 



of various sizes, and a large quantity of marble ornaments of all sorts 
and sizes is made there." 

" They must employ a great many workmen," Mary remarked. 

" Yes," was the reply, " from five to seven thousand workmen are 
employed at and around the quarries, according to the demand for the 




PLAN OF THE CATHEDRAL OF PISA. 



stone. All the inhabitants of the place get their living directly or in- 
directly from the marble. A good many sculptors have established 
their studios at Carrara, in order to save the expense of the transport of 
the marble in its rough state. Some of the sculptors whose studios are 
nominally in Florence or Rome really spend the greater part of their 
time at Carrara, where their statuary is made, and whence it may be 
shipped directly to its destination. The place is said to be a cheap one 
to live in, but it has certain drawbacks — among others the mosquitoes, 
which are said to be almost insupportable." 

From Avenza the train proceeded to Pisa, where the travellers had 
decided to spend the night, devoting the afternoon to the curiosities 
of the place, and continuing, on the following morning, to Florence. 
We will listen to Mary as she tells the story of their visit to Pisa. 

" This is a very quiet place," she wrote in her note-book, " and they 
tell me that the population does not exceed fifty thousand. Pisa was a 
much more important place several hundred years ago than it is at 
present. It was a Roman colony one hundred and eighty years before 



164 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

the Christian era, and at the beginning of the eleventh century it was 
one of the greatest commercial and seafaring towns on the Mediter- 
ranean. In fact, it was so great that it was a serious rival of Venice 
and Genoa. It had its fleet and its army, and it was one of the fore- 
most cities or republics to take part in the Crusades. 

" In the eleventh century the Pisans drove the Saracens out of Sar- 
dinia, and took possession of the entire island. In the same century 
they defeated the Saracens at Tunis, and also destroyed their fleet near 
Palermo. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries their trade extended 
over the entire Mediterranean, and they had possession of several large 
islands and the whole of the coast from Spezia to Civita Yecchia. Sev- 
eral times they were at war with Genoa, and they suffered some disas- 
trous defeats, which caused a loss of many of their provinces. The 
city was sold to Florence in 1406, and then it gained its independence 
for a time ; but it soon afterwards fell back into the possession of the 




LONGITUDINAL SECTION OF THE CATHEDRAL. 



Florentines. I could tell you more about the history of Pisa, but Fred 
says this is enough ; so I'll come down to what we saw during our short 
stay in the venerable and sleepy place. 

" The old Pisans showed their good sense in one thing, and we are 
very much indebted to them — at least, I am ; and I'm sure mamma and 
Frank and Fred echo my sentiments on this point. You can't guess 
what it is unless you have studied the map of the city. 

" Well, they put all their great curiosities together in one place, so 
we don't have to run about through strange streets and round corners 



SIGHTS IN PISA. 



165 



to see all that is worth the while of the ordinary tourist to see in Pisa. 
The four things to be seen here are the Daomo, or cathedral, the Bap- 
tistery, the Campanile, and the Campo Santo. They are in a single 




SOUTHERN SIDE OF THE CATHEDRAL, 



group, and outside the city. We drove to them, and then made the 
round of the sights without once being compelled to get into a carriage 
or make a walk that amounted to anything. 

" The cathedral is one of the finest buildings of the kind that we 
have seen, and was built in the tenth and eleventh centuries in the Tus- 
can style of architecture. Architecturally speaking, it is a basilica with 
nave and double aisles, and a transept flanked with aisles. It is one 
hundred and four yards long by thirty-five and a half yards wide, and 
there is an immense elliptical dome over the centre. The church is 
built entirely of white marble with black and colored ornamentations, 
and the most magnificent part of it is the fagade, which has columns 
and arches in its lower story, and in the upper parts four open galleries. 

" We entered the Duomo through one of the old doors which is said 
to have been made in the twelfth century. It is a splendid piece of 
bronze casting, and is ornamented with twenty-four scenes taken from 
Scripture. Many of the columns, both on the inside and outside of the 
church, are ancient Roman and Greek columns which the Pisans capt- 
ured during their wars. The church has suffered a good deal from a 
conflagration which occurred here in 1596, and the custodian who showed 
us about called our attention to some of the traces of the fire. There 
are some valuable old paintings and fine pieces of statuary in the 



166 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



church. The pulpit is a very interesting piece of work, and one of the 
finest we have ever seen during our travels ; it is the work of Nicolo 
Pisano, and he deserves to have his name go down to posterity just 
for this pulpit if for nothing else. 

"In the nave of the church there is a great bronze lamp. The lamp 
is interesting in itself, but it is more interesting from the fact that the 
swinging of this lamp was what gave to Galileo the idea of the pendu- 
lum. Galileo Avas born here at Pisa, in 1564. History tells us that he 
went to Florence to study music and painting, and then came back to 
Pisa to study medicine. From his early youth he cared more for me- 
chanical invention than he did for the arts and sciences, except in so 
much as the latter could help him along to the former. One day he 

was in church, and the wind 
blowing through it caused 
this bronze lamp to swing 
from side to side. 

"No doubt that was a 
very common occurrence, 
and he may have seen the 
lamp swinging hundreds of 
times before, and thought 
nothing of it ; but on that 
particular occasion he hap- 
pened to notice that the 
swinging of the lamp 
seemed to mark exact peri- 
ods of time, and he said to 
himself, 'Something could 
be made to swing like that, 
and mark off divisions of 
time more accurately and 
much more minutely than 
GALILEO. we can do it by means of 

the hour-glass.' 
" He went home and set to work on the idea that had occurred to 
him, and in a little while he had constructed a clock with a pendulum, 
which was exactly the same in principle as the ordinary pendulum- 
clock of the present time. It is to Galileo that we owe the invention 
which is so common everywhere at the present day. 

" Well, but this isn't telling you about the sights of Pisa. 




BAPTISTERY OF PISA. 



167 



" As soon as we had finished with the church we went to the Bap- 
tistery, which is a beautiful circular building about a hundred feet in 
diameter, surrounded by half columns below, and a gallery of smaller 
columns above. A great dome one hundred and ninety feet high rises 




RELIEF UPON THE PULPIT IN THE BAPTISTERY. 



above it, and it has four entrances corresponding to the four cardinal 
points of the compass. There is a beautiful font, which is of an octag- 
onal shape, and occupies the centre of the building ; there is also an 
admirable pulpit, which is supported on columns, and has bronze reliefs 
by Pisano, the same artist who made the pulpit of the cathedral. 

" There is a very fine echo under the dome of the Baptistery, and 
Frank said it reminded him of the echo at the dome of the Taj Mahal 
in India, though he thought the echo of the Taj was superior to the 
one in the Baptistery. Perhaps this may be due to the shape of the 
two domes ; the dome of the Baptistery is exactly the half of a globe, 
while that of the Taj Mahal is something more than that — peihaps five- 
eighths of a globe. Its rounded shape makes it appear in the distance 
as though it were not attached to the building. Bayard Taylor says 



168 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

in his description of the Taj that as he approached it miles away the- 
great dome seemed hke a bubble hanging on the horizon. 

" I am sure you have heard of the Campanile of Pisa, though you 
may not think so until you know that it is more frequently called the 
Leaning Tower. There are pictures of it in many school-books, repre- 
senting a tower which leans considerably out of the perpendicular, and 
appears almost ready to fall over. The height of this tower is one hun- 
dred and seventy-nine feet, and it stands thirteen feet out of the perpen- 
dicular. It looks as though it were about to fall, but as it has stood in 
this place and position for centuries, there is really no danger of its 
toppling over until an earthquake happens along to assist it. 

" Nobody knows positively whether this peculiarity of the tower 
was intentional on the part of its builders or not. It was begun in 
1174 and finished in 1350. There is said to be a very old picture of 
Pisa somewhere in which the Campanile is represented as standing up- 
right, and from this it has been inferred that the tower was built in an 
upright position and afterwards settled as we find it. Another theory 
is, that soon after the work of construction was begun the foundations 
settled somewhat on one side. In order to remedy this defect the 
builders endeavored to give the upper portion a vertical position. 

" We went to the top of the tower, partly for the sake of the view 
and partly for the sensation of looking over the side which is lowest. 
I confess that it made my head swim a good deal, and I didn't stay on 
that side more than a few seconds. Mamma wouldn't venture there at 
all, although she frankly admitted that it was nonsense for her to feel 
as she did. She said she couldn't help it, and therefore she was not go- 
ing to look over the side and run the risk of having a fainting-fit then 
and there. She was right, as her nerves are weak. 

" Before I leave the Leaning Tower I must refer to Galileo again, as 
it is said that he availed himself of the oblique position of the structure 
in his experiments regarding the laws of gravitation. In the top of the 
tower there are seven bells, all of them very old. The heaviest weighs 
six tons, and I was glad to see that it was on the side farthest away 
from the overhanging wall. If workmen had been there moving the 
bell to the lower side, I should have gone down the stairs just as quickly 
as possible, without any attempt at dignity. 

" I have disposed of three of the sights of Pisa, and only one re- 
mains : that is the Campo Santo, or burial-ground. It is a very interest- 
ing burial-ground because the earth in it Avas brought from Jerusalem. 
It was founded by Archbishop Ubaldo in 1188, and he caused fifty-three 



BURIED IN ^OLY GROUND. 



169 



ship-loads of earth from Mount Calvary to be brought to Pisa, in order 
that the dead might lie in holy ground. Originally there was no high 
wall around the Campo Santo, but a hundred or more years after the 
burial-place was established the authorities of the city ordered the pres- 
ent wall to be built. 

" The Campo Santo is 138 yards long by 57 yards wide, and the wall 
or arcade which surrounds it is about 50 feet high. There is a marble 
canopy over one of the entrances, and the wall consists of forty-three 
arcades resting on pillars, divided up into chapels, and all enclosing the 
green burial - place in 
the centre. The walls 
are covered with fres- 
cos by eminent paint- 
ers of the thirteenth 
and fourteenth centu- 
ries, and there are 
tombs and monuments 
scattered everywhere. 
Some of the paintings 
show that the artists 
who made them must 
have had a very vivid 
fancy. I won't at- 
tempt to describe them, 
as it would take alto- 
gether too long, and 
some of the descrip- 
tions wouldn't be par- 
ticularly pleasant. 

" At one end of the 
Campanile we were 
shown the chain of the 
ancient harbor of Pisa : 
an immense chain that 
was stretched across 
the Arno to keep out 
hostile fleets. This 

chain was captured by the Genoese in 1632. Parts of it were given to 
the Florentines, who kept them as curiosities, and also as trophies of 
their war with the vanquished Pisans; but after the events of 1848 the 




ITALIAN OAK PEDESTAL. 



170 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

-chains were given up, and are now the permanent property of the city 
that originally owned them. We spent an hour or more in the Cam- 
po Santo looking at the monuments and paintings, and then went to 
the Botanical Garden, which is said to be one of the oldest in Italy. 
It contains a statue of Galileo, who was a professor in the university 
with which the garden is connected." 

The evening was devoted to a stroll along the banks of the Arno 
and through the principal streets of Pisa, and also to the writing of jour- 
nals and letters which had been left over from Genoa. On the follow- 
ing day the party took the train at the convenient hour of 9.30 in the 
forenoon, having secured tickets for Florence. 

Mrs. Bassett asked how far it was to Florence, and whether they 
were to stop at any show-place on the way. 

" It is sixty-one miles," Frank replied, " and we do not intend stop- 
ping until we reach the railway station of the beautiful city." 

"What places do we pass through?" was the question which nat- 
urally followed Frank's announcement. 

"The principal places on our route," said Frank, "are Lucca and 
Pistoja ; both are old, and, to some extent, interesting. The chief objects 
of interest are the churches, which are admirable structures ; and if 
we were studying architecture it would be worth our while to spend 
a day or two, or perhaps longer, in each of those cities." 

" I will be satisfied," Mrs. Bassett remarked, " if you will tell us 
something about the cities as we go through them." 

Frank agreed to the proposition, and as the train came in sight of 
Lucca he told his mother that it was a very well-built city, about the 
size of Pisa, and was noted for its silk factories. " The silk industry," 
said he, " was introduced into Lucca from Sicily more than five hundred 
years ago, and has been kept up ever since. They also make a great 
many woollen goods here. The Oriental fez or red cap that is ^vorn 
very much through the Levant and in Egypt is largely manufactured at 
Lucca, whence it is exported to the market which demands it. There 
is a general but erroneous impression that the fez is distinctly an article 
of Oriental manufacture, which is not at all the case. 

" While on this subject I may add," he continued, " that a great deal 
of the Oriental silk offered in the bazaars of Constantinople, Damascus, 
Cairo, and other cities comes from the looms of France and Italy. 
When we were in Damascus we were one day looking at the silks in the 
bazaars, and while one of the dealers was unrolling a piece which he 
said was manufactured in that city the card of the French manufacturer 



LUCCA AND JULIUS CiESAR 



in 



who made it dropped from the roll and fell near my feet. I picked it 
up, wondering what it was. A single glance told the whole story : 
the silk was not made in Damascus but in Lyons, and that is where a 
good deal of the Oriental silk comes from." 

As Mrs. Bassett looked from the window of the railway train she 
remarked that Lucca seemed to be a very old city, judging from the 
appearance of its walls and the few buildings visible. 

" Yes," replied Frank ; " it was founded so long ago that no one 
knows exactly how old it is. History says that Julius Caesar held a 
conference at Lucca with Pompey and Crassus somewhere about the 
fifty-sixth year before the 
Christian era, the object of 
his conference being to devise 
plans for the administration of 
the Roman Empire for the 
next five years. It is certain 
that Lucca was an important 
place then, and there are the 
remains of a Roman amphithe- 
atre here. After the Roman 
Empire went to pieces Lucca 
belonged successively to the 
Ooths, the Lombards, and the 
Franks; then it became a 
duchy, and afterwards a re- 
public. It has a long history 
of captures and recaptures, and 
fierce wars and insurrections ; 
but I fear it would weary you 
if I should attempt to give 
even a brief list of them. Af- 
ter the conquest by the French in 1799 J^apoleon gave Lucca to one of 
his sisters. It came into the hands of one of the dukes of Parma in 
1814, and in 1847 it was ceded to Tuscany." 

" Isn't this the place where the baths of Lucca are situated?" Mary 
asked, as she contemplated the city. 

" Yes," said Frank ; '' they are not in the town itself, but about twelve 
miles from it. There are some ancient Roman baths in the town, and 
the baths of Lucca about which you inquired were famous in the Middle 
Ages. There is quite a village at the baths, and a great many foreign- 




ROMAN REMAINS. 



172 



THE BOY TRAVELLEES IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



ers go there for the bathing. They are situated in the valley of a little 
river called the Lima, and along this valley there are warm springs 
varying from 85° to 140° Fahrenheit. I have heard that the baths of 
Lucca are very agreeable for a sojourn, as there are delightful drives 
and walks among the neighboring mountains, and the region all about 




THE CENTRK OF FLORENCK. 



the baths is full of historic interest. Perhaps we may go there before 
we leave Italy ; in case the doctor should order the baths for any of us, 
it would give an excuse for the visit." 

Before the conversation regarding Lucca had come to an end the 
train was moving in the direction of Pistoja. Fred said that this was 
the Eoman Pistoria, and it was near the spot where Catiline was defeat- 
ed and killed sixty-two years before the Christian era. He added that 
many other battles had been fought in the neighborhood, and the town 
had given its name to an article of very common, perhaps too common, 
use, as it had killed a great many people. 

'' What is that, please ?" Mrs. Bassett asked. 

*' Why," replied Fred, " it is said that the pistol was invented at 
Pistoja, and derives its name from the place where it was first pro- 
duced. The name is preserved in the article just as the bayonet pre- 



IN SIGHT OF FLORENCE. 



173 



serves the name of Bayonne, in France, where that weapon was first 
made about the year 1671." 

" Do they still manufacture pistols at Pistoja?" Mary inquired. 

" Yes," said Fred ; " one of the chief industries of the place is the 
manufacture of guns, pistols, swords, and other weapons of warfare^ 
together with iron-ware of various kinds. The place is not a large 
one ; it hasn't more than a third as many inhabitants as Pisa or Lucca, 
but it contains some interesting churches and a very quaint palace of 
justice, which is said to have been built in the fourteenth century." 

From Pistoja to Florence the railway line crosses a picturesque 
region at the base of the Apennines, dotted here and there with old 
villages and castles, and with two or three towns of comparatively 
modern growth. As they neared Florence the travellers paid little at- 
tention to what was around them, as they were all interested in catch- 




VIEW ON THE ARNO. 



ing the first glimpse of the great city they were approaching. Frank 
explained to his mother that Florence is the English name for the city, 
and has little resemblance to the Italian one. 

" What is the Italian name, and in what does it differ from the 
English one with which we are familiar ?" 

" The Italians," he replied, " call the city Firenze. They formerly 



174 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

called it Fiorenza, a Avord which came from the Florentia of the 
Komans, who founded a settlement here." 

" It seems to me," said Mrs. Bassett, " that the English title comes 
nearer to the old Koman one than it does to the modern Italian name." 

"Certainly it does," replied Frank, "and it was probably taken 
from it. The different names which are applied to the same city in dif- 
ferent languages are sometimes very confusing. Florence and Fiorenza 
would hardly be suspected of meaning the same thing. You would not 
be likely to suppose that Livorna meant Leghorn, which it does. The 
city that we call Venice is Yenezia in Italian, Yenetia in French, and 
Yenedig in German. From Yenice to Yenedig is certainly a long way, 
and it is a pity that there is not a uniform mode of spelling that will 
apply in all languages, and everybody could understand." 

The rest of the party agreed with, him, and the next question was 
as to the surname of Florence, or Firenze. 

Frank explained that the surname was " La Bella ;" that the Italians 
usually spoke of the city as "Firenze la Bella" (Florence the Beautiful). 

" And I presume it deserves the name," said Mary. " I have heard 
that it is one of the most beautiful cities in Italy." 

"Yes, it is beautiful, and very finely situated," was the reply. " Per- 
haps it is not as picturesque in certain of its features as Yenice or 
Genoa, but certainly it is very finely placed in the valley of the Arno, 
and whether viewed from without or within it is a very beautiful city. 
The Florentines are proud of it, and they have excellent reason for 
being so, as you will know when you see it." 

" I suppose it is as old as Lucca or Pisa ?" queried Mrs. Bassett. 

" E'ot quite as old," was the reply, "as it is supposed to have been 
founded in the first century, while the cities you have named date from 
before the Christian era. The general belief is that it was an unoccu- 
pied region when Lucca and Pisa had attained to considerable impor- 
tance, but it did not amount to much until the tenth or eleventh cen- 
turies. It was overrun by the barbarians during the Dark Ages, and 
is said to have been at one time so completely destroyed that hardly 
one stone remained upon another. During the eleventh and twelfth 
centuries it had grown to such importance that the Florentines aided 
the Pisans in their contests with Lucca and Genoa, besides having vari- 
ous internal wars of their own in which outsiders Avere not expected to 
take any part, though they sometimes did. 

"In the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries there were 
many struggles between local factions and parties, and a great deal of 



FIRENZE LA BELLA." 



175 



blood was shed in these disputes. We will learn more of the history of 
the city as we look at the various monuments it contains. Florence very 
early attained a high position in art, and for a long time it has been a. 
favorite place for sculptors, paint- 
ers, and all who are interested in 
artistic work of any kind." 

It was luncheon-time when the 
party reached the hotel where they 
had decided to stop during their 
visit to Florence, and the ride from 
Pisa had given all of them good 
appetites. They promptly attend- 
ed to the satisfaction of the desire 
for food, and soon after luncheon 
went out to take their first view 
of the city. Fred will tell the 
story of what they saw and did 
during the afternoon. 

" Florence, The City of Flow- 
ers, is well named," said the youth. 
"There are flowers everywhere. 
"Wherever we went there were 
flower-girls peddling their wares, 
and very often they were more im- 
portunate and persistent than is 
agreeable to strangers. We passed 
one of the markets and saw great 
quantities of flowers for sale; on 
the balconies of houses there was 
a profusion of growing plants, 
many of them in blossom, and the 

public garden which we included in our afternoon stroll w^as luxuri- 
ant with flowers. At almost every step it was demonstrated to us 
that this city, more than any other we had seen, deserved the appella- 
tion of floral. As for the other title, " La Bella " (The Beautiful), that 
is also appropriate, as Frank predicted. 

" Florence is situated on both banks of the Arno, much the greater 
part of it lying on the right bank. The valley of the river at this point 
is of goodly width, so that there is abundant room for the city both in 
its present extent and for what may be added in the future. Florence 




PIAZZA DELLA SIGNORIA. 



176 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



was formerly surrounded by walls, but they have been almost entirely 
taken away in recent years, and the space they occupied has been uti- 
lized for the structure of new buildings or the outlaying of avenues, 
streets, gardens, and fine promenades. 

" The walls were built during the thirteenth and fourteenth centu- 
ries, and consequently have been of little use since the invention of gun- 
powder and long-range artillery. The 
old gates have been preserved — or, at 
least, the most interesting of them — 
and great care has been taken to keep 
them, as nearly as possible, in their 
former condition. Most of the gates 
are adorned with frescos, which have 
endured admirably the sunshine and 
storms of several centuries. A part 
of the city is quite new and contains 
wide streets, which are in marked 
contrast to the narrow and often 
crooked streets of the older portions. 
The work of extending and beautify- 
ing Florence has evidently been in 
charge of men of taste and intelli- 
gence, if we may judge by what has 
been accomplished. 

" Of course we bent our steps in 
the direction of the cathedral, but 
did not go directly to it, as there were 
so many things to attract our atten- 
tion on the way. We lingered for 
some time on the Piazza della Signoria, which is the centre of business ; 
in fact, it may be called the centre of the city, which it has been for 
a very long time. In the days of the Kepublic it was the forum, where 
the people met to hold their elections and transact any other business 
pertaining to the Government. It has been the scene of battles and 
insurrections and of executions. The spot was pointed out where Savo- 
narola and two other monks who were associated with him were burned 
to death on May 23, 1498. They were leaders in the Eeformation in the 
country south of the Alps, just as Martin Luther was the leader of the 
Eeformation in Germany, and Wickliffe in England. 

" The importance of Florence as a centre of art is patent to every 




PLAN OF THE CATHEDRAL. 



FLORENCE AS AN ART CENTRE. 



ITT 



stranger who enters this beautiful square. All around are statues, some 
of marble and some of bronze, all showing the work of masters in the 
art of sculpture. Some of the statuary is many 
hundreds of years old, dating from the time of 
the Eomans, while other pieces are from the 




LOGGIA DEI LANZI. 



hands of Michael Angelo or other famous men. There is no single 
specimen that could be called inferior. In the Loggia dei Lanzi there 



12 



178 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



is a collection of groups and single statues that could not be surpassed 
in any other city that we have ever seen. 

" On this square is the Palazzo Yecchio, which was originally the 
seat of the Kepublic, and was built six hundred years ago, though it has 
undergone many alterations since that time and been furnished with a 
lofty tower. One of Michael Angelo's celebrated works stood near the 
entrance of this palace for nearly four hundred years; it has been 
removed to the academy and replaced by a copy in bronze. For one, I 
am sorry it was taken aw^ay ; I would have preferred to see it in the 
place where it had been so long. Why it was moved I do not know, 
unless through fear that the marble might be injured, and the belief that 
a bronze statue would be safer in such a public spot. 

'' We didn't visit the interior of the palace, reserving that for a later 
day. We remained a full hour in the Piazza della Signoria before we 

were ready to move on ; but move on 
we did, and here we are at the cathe- 
dral, or Duomo, as they generally call 
it here. 

" We had heard a great deal about 
this cathedral; but all that we had 
heard did not prepare us for its 
grandeur. According to the pub- 
lished measurements it is 185 yards 
long by 114 in width, and the lan- 
tern on the top of the dome is 385 
feet from the ground. It is higher 
than the domes of St. Peter and the 
Pantheon at Kome, and from what- 
ever direction you approach Florence 
the dome of the cathedral is one of 
the thing's that first meets your eye. 

GIOTTO. ^ 1 1 1 -1 1 1 . 

" It is a very old building, having 
been erected in the thirteenth and 
fifteenth centuries ; it was begun near the end of the thirteenth century, 
and finished about t^vo hundred years later. Perhaps I ought not ta 
say finished, because it has received some additions since that time, and 
portions of it have been torn down to make way for new work. 

" The effect upon the spectator is very impressive, whether he looks 
at the building from the outside or from the interior. If 1 Avere to give 
any preference, it would be to the interior, which is so constructed that 




THE CATHEDRAL OF FLORENCE. 179 

it makes the building appear larger than it really is. The cathedral is 
built in the form of a Latin cross, and the architecture may be styled 
Italian Gothic. There are fewer monuments in the interior of the 




RELIEF UPON THE CAMPANILE OF FLORENCE. 



church than we had expected to find, but the few that it contains are 
worthy of great admiration. 

" Close by the cathedral is the Campanile, or bell -tower, which was 
begun by Giotto in 1334:, but was not completed until after his death, 
though the plans which he made for it were carried out. It is a square 
structure, in the general style of the cathedral, 292 feet high, and it is 
considered one of the finest towers in the world. There is a legend that 
when Charles Y., Emperor of Germany, first saw it, he remarked that 
the Florentines ought to enclose it in a glass-case, or only exhibit it on 
feast-days. One of the modes of comparison in common use is found in 
the words ' Beautiful as the Campanile.' 

" The Campanile is built in four stories, the lower and upper ones 
being taller than the intermediate stories. On the basement story there 



180 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

are several designs of tableaux from the hands of Delia Eobbia and 
Pisano. They represent the progress of the civilization of man, and are 
verv curious and of beautiful workmanship. 

" Frank and I ascended to the top of the Campanile by a staircase 
of 414 steps. I said that the designs of Giotto were carried out by his 
successor, but I was not strictly correct in that statement, because it 
appears that Giotto intended to crown the tower with a spire, whose 
summit would have been nearly one hundred feet higher than the top 
of the structure is at present. There is a chime of six fine bells m the 
top of the tower, which were placed there a long time ago. It is said 
that the tower cost an enormous amount of money, and for that reason 
the plans of the designer were not carried out by the addition of the 
spire." 




LALIAN SOFA OF TUK SIXTEENTH CENTURT. 



CHAPTEE X. 

NOTES ON LIFE IN FLORENCE; FORMER COST OF LIVING THERE; PRESENT 
PRICES; CAUSE OF THE INCREASE. — VISITING THE BAPTISTERY. — " THE 
GATES OF PARADISE" AND THEIR HISTORY. — AN ART COMPETITION IN THE 
FIFTEENTH CENTURY.— GENEROSITY OF GHIBERTI'S CHIEF COMPETITOR.— HOW 
THE BRONZE DOORS WERE MADE ; DESCRIPTION OF THE FAMOUS WORK. — 
THE UFFIZI GALLERY. — THE TRIBUNE, AND WHAT IT CONTAINS. — MRS. BAS- 
SETT'S QUESTION.— THE MEDICI FAMILY, AND WHAT IT ACCOMPLISHED.— HIS- 
TORY OF THE UFFIZI PALACE. — PITTI PALACE. — THE BOBOLI GARDENS.— 
FAMOUS SCULPTORS OF FLORENCE. —MICHAEL ANGELO AND HIS HISTORY; 
THE HOUSE WHERE HE LIVED ; MEMENTOS OF THE GREAT SCULPTOR ; ANEC- 
DOTES ABOUT HIM.— HOW A DESIGN FOR A TOMB LED TO A GREAT CHURCH.— 
MICHAEL ANGELO'S CANE AND SLIPPERS. 



W 



E will not attempt to tell in 
chronological order what our 
friends saw and did during their 
stay in Florence. Generally the en- 
tire party of four was together, as 
nearly everything to be seen in the 
City of Flowers had attractions for 
all. On a few occasions, when Mrs. 
Bassett and Mary desired to go on 
shopping excursions, they were ac- 
companied by one of the youths or 
by a guide obtained at the hotel. 
Fred proposed one day that he 
should assume the character of a 
professional courrier, in the hope of 
obtaining from the shops where pur- 
chases were made the commission 
that is supposed to go into the hands 
of that individual. But his scheme 
failed at the very first shop ; in fact, 




TOMB OF GIULIANO DE' MEDICI. 



182 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 




PICTURE FROM ORGAN SCREEN IN THE CATHEDRAL 



it failed before he put it in operation. He forgot the character he was 
playing until too late, and therefore did not venture to ask for a com- 
mission upon his mother's purchases. 

" I have been told," said Mrs. Bassett, " that Florence is not at all a 
dear place, but it seems to me that the prices of everything are quite as 
high as we found them in Paris or Vienna. There must be some mis- 
take in the stories that have been 
told us about the advantages of 
Florence over the other cities of 
Italy." 

" There was a time," said Frank, 
in explanation of the subject that 
perplexed his mother, " when Flor- 
ence was one of the cheapest places 
in Europe for a residence, but that 
was before it was made the capital 
of Italy. As long as it was the 
capital of the Grand Duchy of Tus- 
cany it was a quiet and very at- 
tractive city, and I have been told 
that living in Florence was wonder- 
fully cheap. It has been said, 
though I do not know if the statement is absolutely true, that in those 
dsLjs a family could have a villa to itself, live well, keep a carriage, and 
have a box at the opera, all at a cost not exceeding two hundred dollars 
per month. A great many foreigners — English, French, Germans, and 
Americans with limited incomes — used to reside here on account of the 
comforts they could obtain for a small amount of money." 

'' How does it happen that the prices have increased so much ?" 
queried Mary, as Frank ended the above statement. 

" In 1864 Florence was made the capital of the Kingdom of Italy, 
and the King and his court moved here from Turin. The prices of 
everything advanced enormously; they were doubled, and in some 
instances trebled ; and during the six years that Florence remained the 
national capital the city was in the high tide of prosperity. In 1870 
the capital was moved to Rome. Florence declined somewhat in im- 
portance, but only a little ; and though prices fell off at first, they did 
not drop greatly. Many of the foreign residents continued to stay 
here, and prices soon regained the standard which they had held during 
the presence of royalty, which did not please the foreigners. 



THE PALAZZO YECCHIO. 



183 



" Previous to 1864 there had been no new houses erected in Florence 
for a long time. The establishment of the city as the capital gave a 
great impetus to the enterprise of the people. 'New buildings were 
erected, new streets were planned, the removal of the old fortifications 
was begun, and in various ways Florence entered upon an era of great 
prosperity, which is still continued. 

"From the fifteenth to the eighteenth century the population of 
Florence was a little less than one hundred thousand. In 1860 it was 
one hundred and twelve thousand, at which figure it remained until 
1864 ; then the population began to increase steadily, and at present it 
is said to be not far from two hundred thousand. The city has a con- 
siderable commerce, though not as much as Genoa or Naples ; and it has 
a goodly amount of manufacturing industries, which afford support to 
large numbers of people. Lying away from the sea, as it does, it has 
not suffered from the attacks of foreign 
enemies as much as Genoa, Venice, and 
some other seaports ; but it has had its 
share of sieges and other troubles, and 
a very good share of local disturbances 
growing out of the quarrels of powerful 
and famous families." 

After they had visited the cathedral 
and the Campanile our friends went to 
the Palazzo Yecchio, which has already 
been mentioned. They admired the pro- 
portions of the great hall on the first 
floor, which was constructed under the 
direction of Savonarola in 1495. Frank 
explained that the building was for a 
long time the seat of the Kepublic, and 

during the time that the capital was located at Florence this hall was 
used for the meetings of the Italian Parliament, and fitted up with 
benches and a platform. All these were removed after the transfer 
of the capital to Eome, and the kail is now rarely used for any public 
purpose. 

Not far from the Palazzo Yecchio and the cathedral is the Church 
of St. John the Baptist, which is better known as the Baptistery, and is 
said to have been originally erected in the sixth century on the site of 
a Roman temple. It is of an octagonal shape, about one hundred feet 
in diameter, and surmounted with a dome of most admirable design. 




MICHAEL ANGELO. 



184 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



An interesting feature of the Baptistery is the celebrated bronze 
doors ; the oldest of them was made by Pisano, and he is said to have 
devoted twenty-two years to the work. The second door towards the 
cathedral is the most celebrated, and was executed by Lorenzo Ghiberti. 




CHRIST OF THE TllIBUTK MONEY. — [Titian.] 



This door represents ten different scenes from Scripture history, and it 
is the door which Michael Angelo said was worthy of forming the en- 
trance to Paradise. There is another door also by Ghiberti, which is 
divided into twenty-eight sections, and represents the history of Christ, 
the Apostles, and the Fathers of the Church down to St. Augustine. 

" The story goes," wrote Fred in his journal, " that Florence suffered 
from the visitation of the plague towards the end of the fourteenth cen- 




ONE OP THE GATES OF GHIBERTI. 



186 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

tury. When the plague ceased, in the year 1400, the Government of 
Florence, aided by the guild of cloth - merchants, decided to have two 
bronze doors made for this church to correspond to the door that was 
already in place — the one made by Pisano. Artists everywhere were 
invited to present specimens of their work in bronze, which should be 
submitted to a jury of thirty -four painters, sculptors, bronze- workers, 
and others who were familiar with the art of that time, not only of 
Florence but of other cities and countries. Ghiberti was then livino" in 
Eimini, having left Florence to escape the plague. When the competi- 
tion was agreed upon he decided to return at once to Florence to take 
part in it, there being no further danger of the plague. 

" A great many pieces of bronze were offered, and when the jury 
came to inspect them they threw out one after another, until onl}^ six 
remained. To these six competitors it was suggested that each should 
produce within a year a panel in bronze of a given size, which should 
form one of the compartments of the first door. The subject which 
the officials furnished was ' The Sacrifice of Abraham.' The artists were 
required to include landscape, animals, and human figures, some in full 
relief, and others in half and low relief, according to the rules of per- 
spective, and, in fact, according to all the rules of Florentine art. 

"Each candidate was presented with a certain amount of mon^y to 
enable him to support himself and pay the expenses of his work, and 
then all were dismissed to do their best. Ghiberti's competitors did 
their work in secret, allowing none but their jnost intimate friends to 
know what they Avere doing, and some of them kept the knowledge 
of their work entirely to their individual selves. 

" Ghiberti, on the contrary, worked openly. He began model after 
model, and invited the citizens and strangers Avho might be in Florence 
to enter his studio, look at his work, and criticise it in any manner 
they chose. The historian who tells us this says Ghiberti found that 
this course was greatly to his advantage, as there were many excellent 
judges of art in Florence at that time ; as he was only twenty years of 
age, it is very evident that the advice of older heads than his Avas of 
great benefit, and gave him many good ideas. 

"When the year was at an end all the panels were brought to- 
gether and placed side by side in the great hall of the Palazzo Yecchio, 
where the jury and the officers of the guild of merchants, together 
with the citizens and the public generally, came to criticise the work 
and decide upon its merits. Two of the panels were speedily rejected 
as being much inferior to the others ; there was considerable variation 



THE GATES OF PARADISE. 



187 



of opinion concerning the other four, but before long the contest was 
narrowed down to Ghiberti and Brunellesco. Brunellesco, by-the-way, 
was the architect who designed the dome of the cathedral, the first 
dome of the world ever placed at so high an elevation. 

" It is a great pity that the four rejected panels were not preserved, 
as it would be interesting to compare them with those that remained. 
The judges decided that Brunellesco's model showed greater freedom 




'''"it- 









¥.m. 



*', 







MADONNA AND ANGELS, UFFIZI GALLERY. — [Titian.] 

of design and strength of composition than Ghiberti's, but that the 
latter possessed more elegance, grace, and picturesque variety in detail 
and execution. So nearly divided were the opinions regarding the 
work of the two great artists that some of them proposed to have the 
execution of the gates divided between them. While the judges were 
discussing this point, Brunellesco suddenly turned towards them, and 
indicated that he wished to speak. All became silent, and then he 
said, in a firm voice, audible through all the great hall : 

" ' Give the work to Lorenzo Ghiberti ; he alone deserves it. I am cer- 
tain that the public cannot be better served, or with more distinction.' 

"Then he added that Ghiberti's model was better than all the 



188 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

others, and that the judges would be false to their duty if they did 
not give him the opportunity for producing the magnificent work for 
which he was so eminently fitted. The judges assented, the crowd 
applauded, and the prize was given to Ghiberti. Here before us is the 
result of his work, and however great may have been the merit of any 
of his rivals, we all feel that the judges decided rightly and his rival 
acted with great generosity towards his competitor. 

"As already stated, the first door contains twenty compositions 
representing the life of the Saviour. Below them there are others, 
with figures of the four Evangelists and the four Doctors of the 
Church, all varied in their form of composition, and yet all in harmony 
Avith each other. According to history, it was completed and put into 
place in April, 1424, though there is some dispute on this point, one 
writer saying that it was not finished until three years afterwards. 
The cost of the door is said to have been about $200,000, and its Aveight 
is 34,000 pounds, though some think it less. 

" The officials of Florence and of the guild of cloth -merchants were 
so greatly pleased with the first door that they gave Ghiberti full per- 
mission to exercise his own taste in designing the second. The second 
is regarded as very much superior to the first, but it did not cost so 
much money, and was finished about 1450, only five years before the 
death of the artist. He is said to have devoted forty years to the en- 
tire work, but it is hardly to be supposed that this is the only composi- 
tion in bronze that he made during all that time. 

" It is a fortunate circumstance that we have a copy of these gates 
in America ; the copies are about half the size of the original, and 
reproduce the work with great exactness. They were made by Barbe- 
dienne, of Paris, and exhibited at the World's Fair in London in 1851. 
Prince Demidoff bought them for his Palace of San Donato, near 
Florence. Ten or twelve years ago these doors were bought for 
William H. Vanderbilt, and sent to his house in New York. 

" Perhaps you may wonder why the copies were not made of the 
full size of the original. It is for the simple reason that copies of the 
exact size of originals, whether of paintings or sculpture, are practically 
forbidden in Italy. I was told yesterday by an artist in one of the 
galleries liere that all copies of celebrated paintings must be made 
either larger or smaller than the original, never of the same size. I 
asked the reason for it, and he said it was to avoid the possibility of a 
substitution of a copy for the original, and to prevent in a general way 
the perpetration of a fraud." 



UFFIZI AND PITTI COLLECTIONS. 



189 



" If anybody has a doubt of the importance of Florence as an art 
centre," Mary wrote in her journal, " that doubt will be dispelled by a 
visit to the Uffizi and Pitti galleries. I wish I knew how many acres 
of paintings there are in the Uffizi Collection — I mean real acres, just 
the kind that land is measured by. You go through room after room, 
or, rather, I should say, through hall after hall, until it seems as if there 
would be no end. Everywhere the walls are covered with paintings, and. 
paintings, too, of the very best character. I don't know how large the 
national debt of Italy may be, but if the Uffizi Collection were sold the 
proceeds would certainly go a long way towards paying off that debt. 

" They say that the gallery began with the Medici Collection, and 
additions were made to it by the Lorraine family, until it is now one of 
the greatest and best in the world, if not the greatest and best of all. 
The catalogue of the paintings and statuary in this collection makes a 




THE TRIBUNE, UFFIZI GALLERY. 



large volume ; I have a small catalogue which claims to name only a 
few of the finest objects in the collection, and yet this little pamphlet 
contains ten good-sized pages, printed in the finest type. 

" I think I could spend a year in Florence, and go through the Uffizi 
Gallery every day and enjoy the journey. There are Titians, Eaphaels, 
Eembrandts, Tintorettos, Yeroneses in considerable number, and I don't 



190 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

know how many other old masters are represented. In fact, I beheve 
that every old master who ever acquired a reputation that amounted 
to anything is represented in this famous collection, not only by one, 
but by several specimens of his work. 

'' There are wheels within wheels," continued Mary, " and there are 
art centres within art centres. Italy is the art centre of the world ; 
Florence is the art centre of Italy ; the Uffizi Gallery is the art centre 
of Florence ; and the Tribuna, or Tribune, is the art centre of this gal- 
lery. The Tribune of the gallery I am now telling about is the gem of 
the collection and the art gem of the world. 

" Perhaps you may think I am exaggerating, but you won't think 
so when I tell you what we saw there, and what the Tribune is. It is 
an octao:onal hall, line enouo^h to have cost one hundred thousand dol- 
lars for its construction, and beautifully decorated. In the centre of it 
are five very famous marble sculptures, the most famous of all being the 
' Yenus di Medici.' It is no modern work, and nobody knows who 
made it ; it was found in the sixteenth century in the villa of Hadrian, 
near Tivoli, and was brought to Florence in 1680. I said it is not known 
who made it, but there is a Greek inscription on the base which indi- 
cates that the statue was made by Cleomenes, the son of Apollodorus; 
he is supposed to have lived about two or three hundred years before 
the Christian era, though nobody knows positively. 

" That is the principal piece of sculpture of the five. The other four 
are as follows : ' A Satyr Blowing on a Cymbal,' restored by Michael 
Angelo; 'The Group of the AVrestlers;' and then a statue about which 
there has been much dispute, but is generally known as ' The Grinder,' 
or 'A Slave Sharpening a Knife;' it was found at Kome in the six- 
teenth century, but its origin and maker are unknown ; lastly, there is 
the ' Apollino,' or ' Young Apollo,' also with an unknown history. 

We lingered for some time in contemplation of the wonderful statu- 
ary which occupies the centre of the Tribune. The walls of this hall 
are covered with magnificent paintings by Raphael, Correggio, Yan 
Dyke, Titian, Del Sarto, Domenichino, Rubens, and other artists, every 
one of them foremost on the list of fame. If the Government of Italy 
should ever ask the President of the United States what it can do to 
show its good-will towards the Republic beyond the Atlantic, I hope 
the President will intimate tliat the art collection in the Tribune of the 
UfRzi Gallery in Florence will be esteemed as a gift of the very highest 
character, and calculated to keep the peace between the two nations. 

While the party was contemplating the wonderful statuary, Mrs. Bas- 



THE MEDICI FAMILY. 191 

sett intimated that she would hke to know what other works of art had 
been made by Mr. Medici, the sculptor of the " Yenus" they were look- 
ing at. I^Vank explained that Medici was not the name of the sculptor, 
but of the family to whom we are indebted for the collection. 

" The Medici family," said Frank, '' has been famous in Florentine 
history ever since 1389, the year of the birth of Cosimo, or Cosmo I. 
According to history Cosmo I. was a liberal patron of learning and the 
arts, and acquired an immense fortune by commerce, which he spent in 
adorning his native city with public edifices, and founding institutions 
for educational and charitable purposes. He founded an academy for 
teaching the Platonic philosophy, and also made large collections of 
Greek, Latin, and Oriental manuscripts, which he bestowed on the Lau- 
rentian Library of Florence. 

" He was such a great benefactor of the people," Frank continued, 
" and so renowned for his urbanity of character that he received the 
title of 'Father of His Country.' He was emphatically the greatest 
man of his time in Florence, and his example had much effect upon the 
members of the family who succeeded him. 

'' There was a long line of distinguished men bearing the name of 
Medici. J^early all of them were renowned for their ability, but it is 
necessary to say that they were not equally renowned for their gener- 
osity and kindness to the people. Two of them were usurpers, and met 
death at the hands of their brothers, after being guilty of many cruelties. 
One of the Medicis is believed to have poisoned his mother, but happily 
this charge is not brought against any other member of the family. 

" The Ufiizi Palace was erected by Cosmo I. for the public offices or 
tribunals, and contains, in addition to the gallery, an immense library 
and the archives of the Medici family. A gallery connects the Ufiizi 
with the Pitti Palace, which is on the other side of the Arno. It goes 
over the Ponte Yecchio, or Old Bridge, and unless one's attention is 
called to it he hardly realizes that he has crossed the river during his 
stroll through the halls and corridors devoted to this wonderful art col- 
lection of Italy, and specially of Florence. 

" The Pitti Palace was the residence of the King during the time that 
Florence Avas the capital of Italy. It takes its name from Luca Pitti, 
who began its structure, and was a bitter opponent of the Medici family. 
At one period of his life he enjoyed the highest popularity, but he was 
concerned in a conspiracy against Pietro de' Medici in 1466, and ceased 
to have any popularity afterwards. Most of those who were concerned 
with him in the conspiracy were banished, or fled from the city to escape 



192 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



punishment. One historian says of him : ' Luca, though exempted from 
the fate of the other leaders of the faction, experienced a punishment of 
a more galUng and disgraceful kind ; from the high estimation in which 
he had been before held, he fell into the lowest state of degradation. 




LORENZO DE MEDICI. 



The progress of his magnificent palace was stopped ; the populace, who 
had formerly vied with each other in giving him assistance, refused any 
longer to labor for him. Many opulent citizens who had contributed 
costly articles and materials demanded them back, alleging that they 
were only lent. The remainder of his days was passed in obscurity and 
neglect ; but the extensive mansion which his pride had planned still 
remains to give celebrity to his name.' " 



BOBOLI GARDENS AND MICHAEL ANGELO. 



193 



The galleries of the Pitti Palace are by no means as large and nu- 
merous as those of the UflBzi, but they contain some magnificent paint- 
ings and statuary which should not be neglected. Our friends visited 
the collection after they had viewed that of the Uffizi Palace, and then, 
finding themselves near the Boboli Gardens, concluded to spend a little 
time in the open air and rest from their fatigue. 

They found the gardens very interesting, as they are beautifully 
laid out and picturesquely situated. The ground rises behind the Pitti 
Palace, and from the upper portion of the gardens the visitors had excel- 



V lit (■■^ 




PONTE VECCHIO. 



lent views of Florence with its domes and towers. They were able to 
compare the Campanile, the dome of the cathedral, the tower of the Pa- 
lazzo Yecchio, and other domes and towers with each other, and to look 
down upon the busy streets of the city, as well as upon streets that had 
a very quiet aspect. The Boboli Gardens were planned and laid out 
more than three hundred years ago, and from time to time they have 
been improved very much in various ways. 

There are long and sheltered walks, like arbors, and there are walls 
of verdure admirably adapted to the climate of Central Italy. Then 
there are many terraces and statues and vases and other works of art, 
which add to the interest of the place. Some of the statues are antique, 
some of them are partially antique and partially modern, and nearly all 

13 



194: THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

are by artists of the highest rank. The gardens contain four unfinished 
statues by Michael Angelo, which are said to have been made by order 
of Pope Julius II. They stand at the angles of the grotto near to one 
of the principal entrances to the gardens, and it is said that this grotto 
was originally used as an ice-house. 

There are also in the gardens several statues which are symbolical 
of rivers ; they were designed by John of Bologna, together with other 
statues devised by this artist. Even without the statuary or other 
marble adornments, the Boboli Gardens would be magnificent, as they 
have an admirable collection of laurels, cypresses, and other trees, that 
have been carefully attended to and have grown to great size. Within 
the last twenty or thirty years the collection of plants has been con- 
siderably increased, and promises to have a still greater increase in the 
future, as its management is of the best. 

While they were looking at the statues from Michael Angelo' s 
hand, Mrs. Bassett said she would like to know something about that 
great artist. " I have seen so much of his work since I came to Flor- 
ence," said she, " that it almost seems as if I knew him, although I am 
well aware that it is a long time since he lived." 

" That is the way we all think, and I think it is impossible for any 
one to visit Florence and not have the same sort of feehng. I was 
reading up his history this very morning," said Frank, " and therefore 
am prepared to tell what you wish to know." Thereupon, in compli- 
ance with the request, the youth continued as follows : 

" His full name was Michael Angelo Buonarotti ; the family was an 
old and wealthy one of Italy, and the member of it whose history we 
are considering was born in 14Y4. He attended school in Florence, and 
very early in life developed a fondness for art. He began to study 
sculpture in a garden, which one of the Medici family had furnished 
with antique statues and reliefs ; very soon after beginning his studies 
he executed a relief in marble which was entitled ' The Battle of Her- 
cules with the Centaurs,' and this work is still preserved in Florence. 

'' When Angelo was twenty years old he went to Bologna, where he 
spent a year ; then he returned to Florence and executed a statue of a 
Sleeping Cupid, which was sold to a dealer in antiquities. This dealer 
passed off the statue as an antique, and sold it for a very high price. 
Then the sculptor went on producing other statues, and in 1504 exe- 
cuted the celebrated one of 'The Psalmist David,' which was placed 
in front of the Palazzo Yecchio. It would take a long time to name 
all of his works ; the fact is, I cannot begin to remember them without 



PICTURE OF THE LAST JUDGMENT. 



195 



looking at the catalogue, and perhaps the catalogue would be tiresome 
reading if I should attempt to give it in full." 

" He was a painter as well as a sculptor, was he not ?" queried Mrs. 
Bassett, as Frank paused. 

" Yes, he was both painter and sculptor ; and among his early paint- 
ings is a picture of the Holy Family. He was invited to Kome by 
Pope JuUus II., and employed to build for that pontiff a monument or 
mausoleum. He made a mag- 
nificent design for this work, 
^nd while they were consult- 
ing for a suitable place for the 
monument, it was suggested 
that a new chapel ought to be 
built expressly for it. The 
Pope accepted the suggestion 
-and decided to rebuild the 
Church of St. Peter, and thus 
it happened that Michael An- 
gelo's design for a tomb was 
the cause of the erection of 
the most magnificent church 
in the world. 

"There are many of Mi- 
chael Angelo's paintings in 
Pome, and we shall see them 
when we go there. Among 
his greatest productions is a 
picture in fresco of the Last 
Judgment, which is in the 
Sistine Chapel at Pome ; it is 
said that he occupied nearly 
eight years on this picture, 
which includes about three 
hundred figures. He was ap- 
pointed architect of St. Peter's 

Church on the condition that he should receive no salary, and might 
deviate in any way he chose from the design of the former architect 
of the church ; but he did not live to see the building completed. 

" Michael Angelo planned and built several palaces in Pome, Flor- 
ence, and other cities, and even these things I have mentioned did not 




VIRGIN AND CHILD. — [Michael Angelo.] 



196 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 




HEAD OP ANGEL. — [Donatello.] 



exhaust his abiUties. He erected fortifications at Florence in 1528, and 
in the following year aided in the defence of the city when it was 
attacked. He was a poet, and his sonnets and other poems are distin- 
guished for their elegance and purity 
of style. They were published in 
1538, and have often been reprinted." 
"The house Avhere he lived is 
one of the curiosities of Florence, is 
it not ?" Mary asked. 

" Yes," said Frank ; " his house is 
preserved here, and very much in the 
condition that it was during his life- 
time. We will see it to-morrow." 

" We must certainly see it," said 
Mrs. Bassett. " It will be interest- 
ing not only on account of the great- 
ness of the man who lived there, 
but because we can compare it with 
houses of more modern construction. 
What is it called ?" 

"It is the Palazzo Buonarotti," 
was the reply. " The family became extinct about the middle of the 
present century ; the last man to bear the name w^as Minister of Public 
Instruction, and greatly honored and respected by his fellow -citizens. 
At his death he bequeathed the palace and everything it contained to 
his native city, on the condition that it should remain just as it was." 

According to promise, Frank made arrangements for the party to 
visit the house of Michael Angelo on the following morning. They 
were shown through the various rooms, which contained a great many 
specimens of ancient sculpture, pictures, groups and single statues by 
Michael Angelo and other artists, several portraits of the famous man, 
and also several busts and statues of him which are said to have been 
made from life. The largest room contains Angelo's statue by Novelli, 
a famous sculptor of the time ; opposite to this statue is " The Holy 
Family," one of the few oil-paintings that are certainly known to have 
been painted by Angelo. Our friends saw the marble relief of " The 
Battle of Hercules with the Centaurs," which has already been men- 
tioned. There were also several paintings illustrating important events 
in Michael Angelo's history, and in one room was a collection of paint- 
ings Avhich relate principally to the Buonarotti family. 



RELICS OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 



197 



" Quite as interesting to me as anything else that we saw," said 
Mary, " was the cabinet which contains various articles worn or used 
by this illustrious man. There were two of his walking-sticks with 
strong handles which he used to carry in his old age to prevent falling 
on the slippery pavements of the city. Then there were the table on 
which he used to write, and the chair whereon he sat. There are 
various medals which he received, and one thing I shall never forget is 
the pair of old slippers which he used to wear when in the house. 
Everything is so well cared for that it was difficult for me to realize 
that the man to whom these 
things belonged had been 
dead for more than three 
hundred years. 

'' In another room we saw 
several old bookcases, which 
contained some of Michael 
Angelo's manuscripts, and 
the oil-flasks and paint-cups 
which he used, together with 
the tools that he employed 
in making his models for 
statuary. We saw several of 
his models preserved with 
other things, and also many 
of his letters, but it is hardly 
necessary to say that we had 
neither time nor opportunity 
to read them. He wrote in 
a very clear hand, or what 
was probably a clear hand 
in those times, though it is 
not easy reading nowadays. 
When we came out of the 

house we did so with great reluctance, and I am pretty sure that the 
first hour I have to spare, when the house is open to visitors, I shall ask 
Frank or Fred to go there with me again." 




MICHAEL angelo's STUDY, 



CHAPTEK XI. 

SAVONAROLA; SOME ACCOUNT OF HIS LIFE AND CHARACTER; HIS MARTYRDOM; 
THE CELL WHERE HE LIVED; HIS INFLUENCE WITH THE POPULACE.— AMERI- 
CUS VESPUCIUS ; HIS HOUSE IN FLORENCE ; HOW HE OBTAINED HIS REPUTA- 
TION; A GOOD LETTER -WRITER. — STATUE OF DANTE. — CHURCH OF SANTA 
CROCE.— THE ILLUSTRIOUS DEAD OF FLORENCE ; TOMBS OF GALILEO, MICHAEL 
ANGELO, AND OTHERS. — MAC HIAVELLI, AND HOW HE HAS BEEN MISREPRE- 
SENTED.— GALILEO AND HIS INVENTION OF THE TELESCOPE; HIS TREATMENT 
BY THE INQUISITION; LAST DAYS OF HIS LIFE. — MILTON'S VISIT TO THE 
GREAT ASTRONOMER. — " IT DOES MOVE !"— VITTORIO ALFIERI. — CHURCH OF 
SAN LORENZO.— THE MEDICEAN CHAPEL ; PURPOSE FOR WHICH IT WAS BUILT. 
—FLORENTINE MOSAICS ; HOW THEY DIFFER FROM ROMAN MOSAICS.— COSTLY 
COFFINS AND TOMBS. 




O 



IST one of their rounds of sight- 
seeing our friends visited the 
building that contains the cell of 
Savonarola, the Dominican monk 
whose death at the stake in the 
Piazza della Signoria has already 
been mentioned. The cell which 
this celebrated man occupied is an 
object of great interest, and is 
visited every year by thousands 
of Italians and other people. 

Concerning this individual, 
Avho made such a mark in the time 
in which he lived, Fred wrote in 
his journal as follows: 

"We saw the portrait of Sa- 
vonarola which was painted dur- 
ing his lifetime by one of his 
brethren, and they also showed us some of his manuscripts, the tunic 
and girdle that he wore, and the crucifix that he carried. There was a 
melancholy souvenir of the last hours of his life in the shape of a 
charred fagot from the stake where he was burned to death. 



AMERICUS VESPUCIUS. 



AN ITALIAN MARTYR 



199 



" Savonarola was born at Ferrari in 1452, and became a Dominican 
monk in 1475. According to the accounts of his life, his first attempt 
to preach proved a failure ; but he persevered, like Demosthenes, and 





SAVONAROLA. 



ultimately became an eloquent preacher. He exercised a wonderful in- 
fluence over the populace. When he went abroad people knelt as he 
passed, and pressed upon him to kiss the hem of his robe ; so great was 
the popular enthusiasm in his behalf that for some time he needed 
a guard to protect him from the rush of the throng whenever he passed 
between the convent and the cathedral. The great Duomo, with all its 



J 



200 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

immense interior, could not contain the multitudes that came to hear 
him preach, and so powerful was the impression he made upon them 
that not infrequently his voice was drowned by their violent sobbings 
and expressions of grief. They seemed to regard him in the triple char- 
acter of prophet, priest, and king ; and the great mass of the Florentines 
at that day considered him as one far above ordinary mortals. 

" He preached as vigorously as did Martin Luther, denouncing with 
the greatest boldness the vices of the priests and monks of that time, 
and the corruptions of the Church, which had become notorious. In 
his fight against the Church he very naturally drifted into Kepublican- 
ism, boldly advocating the overthrow of all kingly power and the estab- 
lishment of political liberty. In 1494 the power of the Medici family 
was overthrown, and Savonarola became the leader of the Liberal party, 
by which a new Constitution was adopted on Christian principles. This 
liberal party was called the Piagnoni, and at one time it threatened to 
sweep over the whole of Italy and overthrow the government. 

" Savonarola refused to accept the authority of Pope Alexander YL, 
who was then in power, and in punishment for his refusal he was ex- 
communicated by the Pope. In their zeal for the Reformation which 
this enthusiastic monk was preaching the people made bonfires in the 
public squares, on which they piled paintings and statuary, books and 
musical instruments, costly apparel and jewelry, and many other things 
whose influence was considered pernicious. Books, either printed or in 
manuscript, which he condemned were cast into the flames along with 
the rest, and even some of the artists who had espoused his cause threw 
away their palettes, pigments, and brushes, and renounced forever their 
devotion to art. Property of great value was thus destroyed. 

" After a time the popular enthusiasm declined, and then the crowd 
that had sought to do Savonarola reverence became a mob ^vhich 
endeavored to tear him in pieces. He was imprisoned, put to the rack, 
tried for heresy, and condemned to death at the stake. When he was 
led out to execution the bishop pronounced complete excommunication 
upon him. ' I separate thee from the Church militant,' said the bishop. 
'Thou canst not separate me from the Church triumphant!' was the 
reply of the monk, as he stood upon the pile which was ready to be 
lighted by the torch of the executioner. 

" After his death the ashes of Savonarola were cast into the Arno, 
just as those of Wickliffe, that other leader of the Reformation in Eng- 
land, were cast into the Avon. It is said that for many years, whenever 
the anniversary of Savonarola's death came around, the spot where he 



AMERICUS VESPUCIUS. 



201 



suffered martyrdom was covered with flowers by unknown hands. 
Many of the people beUeved that the flowers were scattered there by 
angels. Savonarola's portrait was painted by Kaphael, and placed in the 
Vatican among the saints and doctors of the Church. 

" If you wish to read more about this remarkable man, let me call 
your attention to the Eomola of George Ehot, which contains an ex- 
cellent delineation of his 
life and character." 

Havino; seen the house 
in Genoa, and also the one 
in Cogoleto, alleged to be 
the birthplace of Colum- 
bus, our friends made a 
point of visiting the build- 
ing supposed to be the 
birthplace of that other 
American discoverer 
whose name was given to 
the Western Continent : 
Amerigo Yespucci, or 
Americus Yespucius, as it 
is best known to us. The 
Florentines did not seem 
to have a high reverence 
for the fame of Yespucius, 
as they make no serious 
claim that the house exhib- 
ited as such was really the 
home of this navigator. In 
what part of Florence he 
was born is an open ques- 
tion ; but it is reasonably 
certain that he first saw 
the light there during the 
year 1451. His portrait 

is preserved, and a few articles that are said to have belonged to him, 
and the house which is pointed out to have been his residence is adorned 
with a long inscription in Latin, setting forth what he accomplished. 

In his early life Yespucius was engaged in mercantile pursuits in his 
native city, and took a great interest in the study of astronomy and 




SAVONAROLA S CELL. 



202 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



geography. He removed to Spain in 1490, and it is said that he be- 
came acquainted with Columbus just before the latter went on the mem- 
orable journey which resulted in the discovery of the New World. 
Yespucius did not accompany Columbus at that time, and the latter 
does not mention him in an}^ of his Avritings that have come down to 
us until in a letter dated February, 1505, he speaks of Yespucius as a 
person Avhom he knew and esteemed. According to some biographers, 




MARTYRDOM OF SAVONAROLA. — [From an old priut.] 



Yespucius was employed as a merchant at Seville during the time Co- 
lumbus was making most of his voyages. As an astronomer he accom- 
panied Ogeda to America in 1499, and, according to a letter written by 
himself, he was a member of an expedition of discovery which was sent 
out by the King of Spain in 1497. Humboldt and others argue that 
1499 is the true date of his first voyage. He made four voyages to the 
New World, but never in chief command. 

When the above facts were mentioned, Mrs. Bassett remarked : " I 
presume Americus Yespucius received many honors, and did not die in 
chains and in prison, as did Columbus, the real discoverer of America." 



COLUMBUS AND VESPUCIUS. 



203 



"You are quite right," Frank replied. "He did receive many 
honors for his astronomical discoveries, and was treated with the 
greatest distinction when he returned in 1502 from an exploring expe- 
dition to Brazil. There was general public rejoicing and a grand pro- 
cession in his honor at Lisbon, and he seems to have won the favor of 
the King and court. He returned to Spain about 1505, and died at 




DANTE'S MONUMEiNT. 



Seville seven years later. He was never imprisoned, and was held in 
high esteem to the end of his adventurous life." 

" How did it happen," asked Mrs. Bassett, " that he obtained so much 
credit for doing so very little in comparison with what was accom- 
plished by Columbus, whose glory he sought for himself ?" 



204 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

" It all resulted," replied Frank, " from the fact that he was a good 
letter- writer. He wrote letters to the sovereigns of Spain, Portugal, 
and Italy, recounting the wonderful things he had seen and accom- 
phshed, and it is to these letters his fame is due." 

" Is that the only instance in history," Mary asked, with a smile 
playing over her features, " in which a man's glory has depended almost 
entirely on his own account of his achievements f 

" History is full of similar cases," Fred remarked, ''from Julius Caesar 
down to the present day. Caesar's account of his wars, written by him- 
self, gave him an enduring reputation. A great deal of the reputation 
of men of the present time is founded on the accounts they themselves 
have given of what they have done, and it has been asserted that in a 
good many instances the writers do not always distinguish between fact 
and fancy. It would take too much time to consider the subject in de- 
tail, and perhaps it might give rise to enmities, so we may as well turn 
our attention to something else." 

It will be recalled that our friends became interested in the history 
of the poet Dante through what they learned of him during their visit 
to Yerona. Their interest in Dante was renewed as they saw in Flor- 
ence the magnificent monument to his memory, which was inaugurated 
with great solemnity on the six hundredth anniversary of his birth, 
May 14, 1865. It is a statue nineteen feet in height, standing on a ped- 
estal twenty-three feet high. The corners of the pedestal are adorned 
with four lions all bearing shields, and around the square sides of the 
pedestal are the arms of the principal cities of Italy. ]N^ot far from this 
monument is the Church of Santa Croce, which has been called the Pan- 
theon of Florence, for the reason that it contains the tombs of many of 
her illustrious dead. Let us listen to what Mary wrote concerning it 
after their visit to this famous building. 

" We seem to have been carried back through several centuries," said 
the girl ; " and as we looked at the burial-places of Michael Angelo, Ma- 
chiavelli, Galileo, Alfieri, Yincenzo Alberti, and others, we could hardly 
realize that we were near the end of the nineteenth century. Some of 
the tombs are very elaborate in their construction, while others are ex- 
ceedingly plain. Some were erected shortly after the deaths of those 
whose memory they aid in preserving, while others are of modern con- 
struction. The tomb of Michael Angelo was erected in 1570, six years 
after the great sculptor's death, while the monument to the memory of 
Dante was erected as late as 1829. 

" The monument of Machiavelli, who died in 1527, was erected in 



MACHIAVELLI AND HIS CHARACTER. 



205 



1787, two hundred and sixty years after the death of that famous Italian 
statesman. Perhaps this is a good place to say something about him, 
as his character is said to have abounded in enigmas and paradoxes, and 
his name has been made a synonyme of perfidious diplomacy. 

" Machiavelli was famous as a diplomat, and during the middle part 
of his life he went on many foreign missions, which he managed with 
great dexterity. His reputation, if we may call by that name the some- 
what infamous character which is ascribed to him, is based chiefly on a 
book that he wrote for the private use of Lorenzo de' Medici. It was 
not designed for publication, and its chief fault seems to have been to 
expose the hypocrisy that prevailed in the diplomacy of the time, and 
which Frank says is not by any means absent in the diplomacy of the 
present day. I have never read 
his book — ^in fact, I had never 
heard of it until yesterday ; but 
from Avhat I have heard and read, 
it seems to me that it has been 
much misrepresented." 

Frank came to Mary's aid by 
reading a quotation from Ma- 
caulay, which we will repeat here 
for the benefit of our readers. 

" ' The character of Machia- 
velli,' says Macaulay, 'was hate- 
ful to the new masters of Italy. 
His works were misrepresented by 
the learned, misconstrued by the 
ignorant, censured by the Church, 
abused with all the rancor of sim- 
ulated virtue by the minions of a 
base despotism and the priests of 
a baser superstition. . . . The name 
of a man whose genius had illumi- 
nated all the dark places of policy, 
and to whose patriotic wisdom an 

oppressed people had owed their last chance of emancipation, passed 
into a proverb of infamy. . . . The terms in which he is commonly de- 
scribed would seem to import that he was the tempter, the evil prin- 
ciple, the discoverer of ambition and revenge, the original inventor of 
perjury,' etc." 




TOMB OF GALILEO. 



206 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



" But I am forgetting the Church of Santa Croce in wandering into 
the fields of diplomacy. In one part of the church our attention was 
called to a chapel which belongs to the Bonaparte family. It contains 
some monuments to members of that family, notably to Carlotta Bona- 
parte, who died in 1830, and Julia, 
who died in 1845. The chapel 
next to it contains a magnificent 
painting attributed to Andrea Del- 
sarto. I was told that the author- 
ship of the picture was somewhat 
in dispute, but whoever painted it 
was certainly an artist of the 
highest class. Our interest in 
Giotto, the famous designer of the 
Campanile, was awakened while 
in this chapel by the frescos rep- 
resenting the history of John the 
Baptist and of St. John the Evan- 
gelist. It is a peculiar circum- 
stance that these frescos were 
covered up for a long time by 
whitewash, and had been totally 
forgotten. Twenty or thirty 
years ago, while the walls were 
being renovated, these frescos were 
discovered, and then the white- 
wash was carefully removed, bring- 
ing to light some of the finest 
specimens of Giotto's work. They were damaged in some parts, but 
have been carefully restored, and are regarded very highly by every 
visitor to the place, especially by artists and students. 

" The church contains the tombs or monuments not only of artists 
and sculptors, but of men of science, of literature, of musical fame, and 
a good many men and women of no particular fame worth mentioning. 
Foreigners as well as Italians have found their burial-place here. In the 
middle of the nave of the church we saw the marble tomb of a bishop 
of Exeter, who died in Florence nearly five hundred years ago when on 
a mission from the King of England to the Eoman Pontiff. Near the 
tomb of Galileo is the monument of the naturalist Tozzetti, and in the 
north transept is that of the composer Cherubini. He was a native of 




TOMB OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 



GALILEO AND HIS DISCOVERIES. 



207 



Florence who lived a long time in London and Paris, where his operas 
and sacred music were produced. He returned to Florence to spend the 
later years of his life, and died there in 1842." 

The tomb of Galileo, in the Church of Santa Croce, calls to mind 
what our young friends learned regarding this remarkable man during 
their visit to Pisa, his experiments at the Leaning Tower, and his dis- 
covery of the utility of the pendulum by observing the swinging lamp 
in the cathedral of that city. Continuing the consideration of the sub- 
ject, Fred wrote as follows : 

'' Galileo's greatest discoveries were made in Florence rather than in 
Pisa, the principal part of his active life having been passed in this city. 
After he left Pisa he was Professor of Mathematics in the University of 
Padua; while at that university he devoted considerable time to the 
study of astronomy, and made several valuable discoveries. He became 
very popular as a lecturer on subjects in which he was interested, and 
so great were the crowds that came 
to hear him that he was sometimes 
obliged to lecture in the open air. 

" One day while he was in Yen- 
ice — it was in the year 1609 — a re- 
port came to him that a man in 
Holland had constructed an instru- 
ment which had the power of mak- 
ing distant objects seem near. Im- 
mediately after his return to Padua 
he devoted himself to solving the 
mystery of this wonderful invention, 
and after a good many trials he suc- 
ceeded in making an instrument 
which magnified three times. It 
consisted simply of a pipe of lead 
with lenses at each end. He carried 

it to Yenice, where it attracted great attention, and pleased the Senate 
of that city so much that thej immediately raised his salary to one 
thousand florins a year, and confirmed him in his professorship for life. 

*' He did not stop with his telescope that magnified three times, but 
soon after constructed one that would magnify eight times, and then 
one which magnified thirty times. With these instruments he studied 
the heavens, and, as might be expected, made many valuable discover- 
ies. His telescope revealed the inequalities on the surface of the moon, 




VITTOUIO ALFIERI. 



208 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

and showed great numbers of stars whose existence had been hitherto 
unknown. On January 13, 1610, he discovered four satelKtes around 
the planet Jupiter. Other important discoveries followed." 

"]N'o wonder he received great honor and attention after having 
done all this," said Mrs. Bassett, as Fred read the foregoing paragraph. 

" Yes," said Fred, " it is quite true he received great honors ; but, on 
the other hand, he was the object of a great many insults and much in- 
credulity. Comparatively few people believed he discovered what he 
said he had, and many declared that it was outrageous, and showed a 
lack of piety for him to scoop out valleys on the fair face of the moon. 
One of the professors in the University of Padua argued that as there 
are only seven metals, seven days in the week, and seven apertures in 
a man's head that there could be only seven planets. 

" Galileo invited him to look through the telescope and see for him- 
self the satellites around the planet Jupiter. When the professor saw 
them he said that as they were not visible to the naked eye they were 
of no use, and consequently did not exist. 

" One of his biographers says that the invention of the telescope led 
Galileo to invent the compound microscope, but this statement has 
been disputed. These discoveries were made shortly before he came to 
Florence to live, having been invited here by the Grand Duke of Tus- 
cany, who gave him one thousand florins and appointed him to a high 
and profitable office. As fast as Galileo increased in popularity and 
prosperity just so fast the number of his enemies seemed to increase, 
and with each new discovery he was made the subject of a fresh 
torrent of abuse. He was summoned before the Inquisition at Kome 
in 1615. The Inquisition refused to take any serious action against 
him, though it advised that he should confine himself to astronomy and 
other studies, and be careful about advancing any theories which would 
interfere with what is taught in the Scriptures. 

'' In the following year his case was again taken up. He was 
charged, I think, with teaching that the sun was the centre of the 
planetary system, and he interpreted the Scriptures to suit his own 
theory. This time he was forbidden ever again to teach the motion 
of the earth or the stability of the sun. The Pope granted Galileo a 
personal interview, treated him kindly, and gave him the assurance of 
Pontifical protection. With this promise he returned to Florence, and 
renewed his studies of astronomy." 

" He ouo^ht to have been safe after that," said Mary. 

" Theoretically, he should have been," said Fred, '' but practically 



"IT DOES MOVE!" 209 

he was not. Perhaps he might have been left alone had he not pub- 
lished a book in Florence in 1632, in which his various theories were set 
forth. This book was considered a violation of the command of the 
Inquisition, and Galileo was ordered to go at once to Eome and appear 
before that body. He was tried on the charge of teaching a condemned 
proposition and violating his pledge, and was sentenced to be impris- 
oned during the pleasure of the inquisitors and to recite once a week 
for three years the Seven Penitential Psalms." 

"I have read about that," said Mary. "That was the time when 
he recanted all that he had said and taught, and promised never again 
to teach that the earth had any motion whatever and that the sun was 
fixed in the heavens and was the centre of a system." 

" Yes, you're right," said Fred. " What else ?" 

" He declared that he detested all such principles, and promised to 
perform the penance that was placed upon him. Then as he rose to 
his feet he is said to have exclaimed in an undertone, but with much 
emphasis, ^E pur si muove!^ (It does move !)" 

" I wonder if the inquisitors heard him ?" Mrs. Bassett asked. 

" I doubt if they did," said Fred, " or they would have at once con- 
demned him to an additional punishment and penance. He was im- 
prisoned for four days, and was then allowed to go to the house of the 
Ambassador of the Duke of Tuscany, but for the rest of his life he 
was kept under careful surveillance." 

" Did he publish anything more about astronomy f asked Mary. 

" I believe not," was the reply. " He paid very little attention to 
astronomy from that time on, but employed himself in other branches 
of natural philosophy. He spent some time in Siena, and then asked to 
be allowed to return to Florence in order to obtain medical aid, his 
health being greatly broken. It was not until 1638 that he obtained 
permission to go to Florence, and then under very severe restrictions. 
Towards the end of his life he became totally blind, and not long after 
his blindness he was afflicted with severe deafness. During this time 
many men of his country and from other lands went to see him, and he 
passed his last days in the society of two of his favorite pupils. Among 
those who visited him was Milton, the author of Paradise Lost, who 
speaks in his journal very forcibly of his acquaintance with Galileo 
during his Italian tour. In one of his works Milton makes this allusion 
to Florence : ' There it was that I found and visited the famous Galileo, 
grown old, a prisoner to the Inquisition for thinking in astronomy other- 
wise than the Franciscan and Dominican licensers thought.' " 

14 



210 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



" When I saw the tomb of Alfieri," wrote Mary in her journal, " I 
did not know anything about him, but determined to find out. The 
inscription on the tomb did not help me very much, beyond giving the 
date of his birth and death, and telling that he was a poet ; so I turned 

to a work on the poets of Italy, and 
there learned what I wanted to 
know. I found [that Yittorio Alfieri 
was the most celebrated Italian poet 
of his time, and he was born at Asti, 
in Northern Italy, in January, ITttO. 
His father was wealthy, and gave his 
son a good education; but he left 
school about the age of fifteen to 
travel and indulge in wild dissipa- 
tions. He travelled through North- 
ern Europe and went to England, 
and in 1775 returned to Turin, where 
he produced a drama which happened 
to be successful. The success of this 
play seemed to make a change in his 
whole life, and from that time he de- 
voted himself to study and to dra- 
matic composition. In the course of 
seven years he composed fourteen 
tragedies, and he wrote a great num- 
ber of sonnets and short poems, to- 
gether with some longer ones. He 
ought to be better known in the United States than he is, because he 
composed five odes on the American Eevolution, and his tragedy of 
Brutus was dedicated to George Washington. He holds high rank in 
Italian literature, and the sculptor Avho made his tomb very appropri- 
ately represents Italy standing by it as a weeping mourner." 

Florence contains 172 churches, and it is not to be expected that 
our friends visited the entire number. We have not space for describ- 
ing all of the religious edifices that they entered, which included only 
those of the greatest interest ; but we must not omit the Church of San 
Lorenzo, which stands on the site of Avhat was probably the oldest 
church in the city. The original building was consecrated by St. Am- 
brose in 39e3, but it was so greatly damaged by fire that it was com- 
pletely rebuilt. The present building dates from 1425, and its con- 




ARCHITECTURAL ORNAMENT. 



CHURCH OP SAN LORENZO. 



211 



struction is due to the Medicis. It has been restored in recent times, 
and, next to the cathedral, is one of the most attractive churches in 
Florence. There are many monuments in the Church of San Lorenzo, 
and a considerable part of the history of Florence can be traced out by 
the study of these memorials, which are all interesting. 

The attention of the strangers was specially attracted to the Medi- 
cean chapel in this church, on account of a story connected with it. 
According to the legend, there arrived in Florence in the year 1603 a 
mysterious individual who called himself Faccardine, Emir of the 
Druses. He sought an interview with Duke Ferdinand I., who was 



then the ruler of Flor- 
very important com- 

The duke granted 
tion. The stranger an- 
scendant of the " Pious 
-earnest Christian; con- 
bitter hatred of 
everything con- 
religion. After 
proposed to aid 
quiring" the 
relic of Christen- 
asked him to ex- 
meant, and the 
that if the proper 
would be pos- 
Holy Sepulchre 
bring it safely 

The duke ac- 
gestion at once, 
that the posses- 
relic would give 
nence amone: 




LANTERN, PALAZZO STROZZI. 



ence, and said that he had a 
munication to make, 
the interview without hesita- 
nounced that he was a de- 
Goffredo," and was a most 
sequently he had the most 
the Turks and 
nected with their 
stating this, he 
the duke in '' ac- 
most revered 
dom. The duke 
plain what he 
explanation was, 
aid was given, it 
sible to steal the 
at Jerusalem and 
to Florence, 
cepted the sug- 
as he realized 
sion of such a 
him a promi- 
Christian rulers 



that he was not likely to obtain in any other way ; so he entered into 
negotiations with the Emir, and the plans were made accordingly. 

Faccardine returned to Jerusalem in 1604 quite alone ; but at the 
same time the duke sent a fleet of galleys to the coast of Syria under 
command of one of his most experienced captains. When he despatched 
the fleet, the duke began the construction of this chapel, laying the first 
;stone of it on the day that the fleet departed. He intended to have the 



212 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



building ready by the time the ships returned with the sacred relic, and 
the work on the chapel was pushed with the greatest vigor. 

The scheme of the theft of the Holy Sepulchre and its transportation 
to Florence did not succeed, although Faccardine and his confederates. 

entered the church at Jerusalem and 
began their operations for detaching and 
removing the sepulchre ; they w^ere dis- 
covered by the custodians of the place 
and compelled to flee to save their lives. 
The marks of the saw with which they 
began their operations are still visible, and 
are pointed out to visitors to the famous 
church. The failure of the scheme of 
theft was regarded by everybody in Flor- 
ence as a great misfortune. The building 
was completed ; but as it could not be 
used for the purpose for which it was 
originally designed, Cosimo 11. converted 
it into the cemetery of the Medici family. 
''It is one of the richest buildings in 
its interior construction that we have ever 
seen," said Mary, in writing her descrip- 
tion of the visit to it. " The walls are 
completely covered with the most valuable- 
marbles and costly stones. Turn what- 
ever way you will, you see these marbles,, 
together w4th jasper, chalcedony, agate,, 
lapis lazuli, and other stones, many of^ 
them of a very artistic character ; they are 
formed into Florentine mosaics. I may 
as well tell you here how the Florentine 
mosaic differs from the Roman mosaic. 
"In the Eoman mosaic very small stones are 'used, each piece being 
of a uniform color throughout. When pictures are formed in Roman' 
mosaic they are made by using these little pieces of stone, arranging; 
them in such a way as to represent the different shades of the picture: 
The colors in the Roman mosaic are almost always artificial, being 
formed of little pieces of opaque glass, which they call ' smalto.' 

"Florentine mosaic is made by employing no colors whatsoever 
except those of the natural stone. Various tints and shadings are 




TORCH-HOLDER FOR EXTERNAL ILLUMI 
NATIONS. 



FLORENTINE AND ROMAN MOSAICS. 



213 



formed by skilful arrangement and adaptation of the gradations which 
the stone affords. It requires a great deal more patience to construct a 
Florentine mosaic than a Koman one, as it is often necessary to hunt 
for a long time before a piece of stone can be found of the shading 
required. It is the rule never to use in a Florentine mosaic stones with 




MOSAIC OF THE THREE KINGS. 



artificial coloring. Everything must be natural. You may think it 
would be very difficult to compose a picture under these circumstances; 
but if you could visit Florence and see what graceful and elaborate 
pictures they make here, representing flowers, fruit, and other things, 
you would be astonished. They cut the most costly stones — and, in fact, 
nearly all the stones — into thin slices not more than an eighth of an 
inch thick, and the process of putting them together and fitting them 
exactly is exceedingly tedious. I wonder that any one has the patience 
to perform this work. The pattern is first drawn on paper, and then 



214 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



pieces of paper are cut out and drawn with the greatest care on the 
stone that has been selected for the work. 

" After the stone has been cut, it is polished on the edges with emery 
until it fits exactly ; it is then joined to the other pieces upon a surface 
of cement of just the right consistency to hold it. When the work is 
finished the cement is smoothed down and fastened to a slab of slate, 
and the surface of the picture is polished very finely. We went to the 
Government manufactory of mosaics, and saw many pieces of work 



• « 




■ :", ..-,4-:^:-/ 








• •'*, 






















&■ 


• • 


'■■■■" •■■ ' -j'^ 


wt^^^- 


H^^M 


^m 


0':' ' 


• # 

« 
*■ 




11^ 


^M 






i 


HB^^^^^^Ji'' : :^ _ , v 


m 




f : ■ 







ANCIENT MOSAIC, RAYENNA. 



under way. They showed us tables, some of them of considerable size, 
and others quite small. That the work is very costly you will under- 
stand when you know that one table that we saw is less than twa 
feet square and valued at five thousand dollars. 



THE MEDICEAN CHAPEL. 



215 



"l^ow you must understand that all through this chapel of the 
Medicean family the walls and tombs present splendid specimens of 
Florentine mosaic. Around the chapel are the armorial bearings of the 
principal States and cities of Tuscany ; they are all made of Florentine 
mosaic, and one of the finest of the entire lot is the shield of Florence, 
which is delicately and most elaborately finished with different hues of 
cornelian and coral, all inlaid so as to represent the relief and shading 
of the flower. This seems to be the three-petaled iris, which we have 
seen growing here in Florence. Every one of the armorial bearings is 
made of bits of natural colored stone put together in this way, and these 
are not by any means the only specimens of Florentine mosaics in the 
place ; their total value must be enormous. 

" The coffins or tombs of the members of the Medici that rest here 
are in the same style of magnificence as I have described. Some of 
them are of red or gray granite, and some are of marble. Some of the 
tombs are surmounted with statues, and the roof, which is divided into 
eight compartments, is covered with frescos that were executed during 
the present century and represent scriptural scenes. Altogether this 
building is a magnificent work, and I don't wonder that the Florentines 
were very sorry that Duke Ferdinand I. was unable to steal the Holy 
Sepulchre and bring it here." 



h ^ i> feat^y «Mi3g» 




'N 



i»^'' ' 'I ^' jL 







A TABLE OF THE MEDICI FAMILY. 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE ENVIRONS OF FLORENCE. —SAN MINIATO AND ITS HISTORY.— THE VILLA OF 
GALILEO.— ITALIAN VILLAS, AND WHY THEY ARE MAINTAINED.— TYRANNIES 
OF FASHION.- LA CERTOSA AND FIESOLE.— AN ANCIENT RIVAL OF FLORENCE. 
— THE GOLDEN BOOK AND ITS USES. — EXCURSION TO VALLOMBROSA. — THE 
MONASTERY AND ITS ORIGIN; WHAT THE MONKS ACCOMPLISHED. —LUXU- 
RIANT FORESTS AT VALLOMBROSA. — AN INTERESTING RIDE. — SCHOOL OF 
AGRICULTURE.— SCENES ALONG THE ROAD.— CURIOUS LEGENDS.— PELAGO.— 
NIGHT IN AN ITALIAN INN.— RETURN TO FLORENCE.— THE GALLERY OF TAP- 
ESTRIES ; SPECIMENS OF TAPESTRIES FROM VARIOUS COUNTRIES ; INTRODUC- 
TION OF THE ART INTO ITALY.— MARY'S ACCOUNT OF WHAT THEY SAW. 




AMONG THK HILLS. 



TT^LORENCE is hardly less interesting in its suburbs than in what is 
J- contained within its walls. Our friends followed the inspection of 
churches, galleries, and shops with various excursions to the region sur- 



N 



CHURCH OF SAN MINIATO. 217 

rounding Firenze la bella. The morning was generally devoted to the 
city, and the afternoon, if the weather was fine, to a drive in the neigh- 
borhood. From the various heights surrounding Florence many charm- 
ing views are presented, and one cannot go easily amiss in making 
these excursions; there are enough of them to last for days and days. 

One of the first visits which the party made was to San Miniato, 
which stands on a hill to the east of Florence, and is a conspicuous 
object from every direction. On the way thither the visitor passes the 
Franciscan monastery, together with other venerable buildings, and 
follows a winding and ascending road till he reaches the church. The 
edifice is a very old one, and contains valuable paintings and interesting 
monuments of former days and people. 

The Church of San Miniato is said to have been founded in the 
eleventh century, on the site of an earlier one ; its facade dates from 
the twelfth century, and the mosaics which adorn it belong to the thir- 
teenth. P)Ut interesting as the church is, it is by no means the chief 
attraction of the spot. The piazza in front of it gives a charming view 
of Florence and the surrounding country, the elevation being such that 
the whole city stands before the spectator, as though it were a large 
map lying upon the ground and he standing above it. The position of 
the church was considered of so much importance in past times that it 
was fortified in 1529 by Michael Angelo. Some of the fortifications 
are still preserved, and they were so well built as to hold the enemy at 
bay during a siege that lasted nearly a year. 

On one of their excursions in the suburbs our friends passed the villa 
of Galileo, which is marked by a bust and an inscription. This is the 
spot Avhere the great astronomer passed the last years of his life. The 
villa is pleasantly situated, and one may say the same of the great 
majority of the villas or detached houses in the neighborhood of Flor- 
ence. Speaking of these residences, Mrs. Bassett remarked, after the 
return from one of their drives, that it seemed to her as if there were 
enough of them to supply every citizen of Florence Avith a villa for 
himself and family, and have several to spare. 

Frank explained that it was necessary for every family in respecta- 
ble society to have a place in the country ; at least, such was the case 
in days gone by, though the rule is relaxing somewhat in these modern 
times. The villas might be allowed to go in a half ruinous condition 
and be quite bare of furniture, owing to the financial inability of the 
owners to keep them in order; but as long as he possessed a villa 
the social standing of a man could not be called seriously in question. 



218 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



He might stay in the city all through the summer, but it was necessary 

to go away to his country residence at least during September and 

October. "It sometimes happened," continued the 

-. youth, " that a single villa was owned by two or three 

people; they took turns in occupying it, each one 

claiming to be the full owner of the place." 

" What did the others do when they had to 
stay in the city ?" Mrs. Bassett asked. 

"Oh, they 
used to shut 
themselves up in 
their houses, 
close the front 
windows, go and 
come through the 
back door, and 
receive no visit- 
ors whatever." 

"Is it really 
the case that the 
people were as 
foolish as all 
that?" 

"Oh, I cannot 
say positively of 
my own knowl- 
edge; but I am 
told so by persons 
who claim to 
know about it, 
and I have read 
the statement in books and stories about Itahan life. I have also 
heard the same thing about JSTew York and London, and believe that 
to some extent the same practice is followed in those cities." 

"I have heard so, too," said Mary; "and don't you remember, mamma, 
three or four years ago, when the Blanks, on one of the fashionable 
streets just off Fifth Avenue, pretended to be at Newport, when they 
were really, for the greater part of their time, in their Kew York house, 
only coming out in the evening to take a run to Coney Island and 
breathe the ocean air ? Don't you remember ?" 










OLD BUILDINGS IN THE VALLEY OF THE ARNO. 




A VILLAGE STREET NEAR FLORENCE, 



" Oh, now that you speak of it, I think I do. Well, we won't 
discuss that subject any further. Human nature and fashionable 
nature are pretty much the same the world over, I imagine." 

Another interesting spot which our friends visited is La Certosa, 
which is about three miles from the city, and situated in a valley on 
the side of a mountain. La Certosa is a Carthusian monastery; the 
building was very solidly constructed, and has the appearance of a 



220 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



fortress of the Middle Ages. The monastery was once a flourishing 
one, but it has suffered from the suppressions of modern times, and now 
has but a very few inmates hving there permanently. 

Portions of two or three afternoons were spent in the Cascine, 
which is the breathing-place of Florence, and holds the same relation to 
it that Central Park does to New York, Prospect Park to Brooklyn, 
and the Bois de Boulogne to Paris. The Cascine is a very pretty park 
with delightful Avalks and drives, and on pleasant afternoons it contains 
a gay assemblage of people on foot and in carriages. It is about two 
miles in length, lying between the Arno and one of its tributaries, and 
it obtains its name from a farm in the neighborhood. IS'ear the middle 




CONTENT OF VALLOMBROSA. 



of the Cascine 
is a large open 
space, where a military band 
plays frequently, and adjoining 
the park is the zoological gar- 
den, which our friends did not 
fail to visit, mainly for the pur- 
pose of comparing it with zoo- 
logical gardens elsewhere. It was the unanimous vote of the party 
that the zoo of Florence is a creditable one, and is surpassed in extent 
by comparatively few collections of animals that they have seen 
elsewhere in their Continental travels. 

Few travellers in Florence fail to visit Fiesole, which is on a height 



THE GOLDEN BOOK OF FIESOLE. 221 

to the north of the city about three miles away. On the way to it the 
visitor passes the Church of San Domenico di Fiesole, which was for- 
merly attached to the monastery where once lived the famous Fra 
Angelico, a monk whose artistic abilities were of the highest character. 
The choir of the church contains a "Madonna with Saints," and the 
picture is known to have come from his easel. 

Mrs. Bassett called attention to the excellence of the road along 
which they were driving, when Frank explained that they were in- 
debted for its construction to the Golden Book of Fiesole. " You 
remember," said he, *' the Golden Book of Venice, containing the names 
of those who had certain aristocratic privileges. Well, they had a Gold- 
en Book at Fiesole, and any one whose name was inscribed therein had 
a right to claim the privileges of nobility. When the rulers of Fiesole 
decided to construct this road, they devised a scheme for raising the 
necessary money by inserting the names of wealthy men in their Golden 
Book, and receiving in return a very substantial equivalent." 

'• Custom has not altogether changed," said Fred, as Frank paused 
at the end of the foregoing remark. " Some of these Italian principali- 
ties and grand duchies are in the habit of bestowing decorations and 
other honors upon those who are willing to pay for them ; at least, I 
have heard so." 

" Yes, that is true," Frank answered. " The custom is identical with 
that of the rulers of Fiesole with their Golden Book, and it prevails not 
only in Italy, but in Spain, Portugal, and some other countries of 
Europe. Decorations and honors can be obtained by the judicious use 
of money, and the man who is anxious for a title will have no difficulty 
in procuring it, provided he is willing to pay handsomely for the honor." 

While this conversation was going on the carriage containing the 
party was nearing Fiesole, and in due time reached it. Fiesole is an 
ancient Tuscan town, and portions of its walls are still preserved. For 
a long time it was a powerful rival of Florence — in fact, it was the more 
powerful of the two. They were frequently at war, and at last, in the 
year 1010, Florence was victorious, and the rival town became its vic- 
tim. That was the time when the Florentines not only conquered Fie- 
sole and other towns, but aided the Pisans in their contest with Lucca 
and Genoa. It was formerly far more populous and prosperous than it 
is at present ; it contains about 10,000 inhabitants, and their chief in- 
dustry is the manufacture of straw goods. The cathedral is one of the 
earliest and simplest specimens of the Tuscan style of architecture ; it 
was begun in 1028, but not completed until a long time afterwards. 




The lon2:est and most interestino^ excursion made by our friends 
during their stay at Florence was to Yallombrosa, which has been made 
familiar to the English speaking public by the following lines from 
Milton : 

" Thick as autumnal leaves that strow the brooks 
In Vallombrosa, where th' Etrurian shades 
High over-arch'd imbower." 



Yallombrosa is some eighteen or twenty miles from Florence, and 



EXCURSION TO VALLOMBROSA. 223 

one has the choice of going there by railway or by carriage. Of course 
the railway is the more expeditious, but it does not afford as many fine 
views as can be obtained along the carriage road. Frank suggested 
that they would make the journey by carriage, visit the monastery, 
spend the night at Pelago, and return on the following day. Should 
the weather continue favorable, they would make their return by car- 
riage ; should it be disagreeable, they would leave the vehicle to find its 
own way back while they would return by railway. 

They made a goodly start in the morning so as to have the day 
before them, and as they passed out of the Porta alle Croce and along 
the Yia Aretina, which borders the river, they met great numbers of 
market-wagons and donkeys with heavy burdens of garden vegetables 
and other produce, which they were bringing to the markets of the city. 
Then there were people with hand-carts laden with fruit and vegetables, 
and there were men and women in carts or on foot carrying bundles of 
straw goods, which they were taking to the city to sell. It was a very 
picturesque scene, and Mrs. Bassett repeatedly remarked that she was 
very glad they came by carriage instead of taking the much less inter- 
esting though more speedy railway train. 

l^umerous villages are scattered along the road, and on both sides of 
the valley the hills were covered with vineyards and olive groves, 
among which the summer villas of the Florentines are very liberally 
distributed. Men and women were working in the fields, and the road 
was thronged w^ith children practising those tricks of beggary in which 
the Italians display so much expertness. Fred remarked that when he 
should leave Italy and look back in imagination over his journey, he 
would gaze through a long vista of extended hands, asking for dona- 
tions from the illustrious stranger. In some instances the children w^ere 
accompanied by their elders, who joined in the solicitation for alms ; but 
as a general thing the begging seemed to be regarded as a juvenile 
monopoly. There is a good deal of uphill in the road from Florence 
to Yallombrosa, and it was along the hills Avhere the movement of the 
horses was necessarily slow that the largest groups of beggars were to 
be found, each group having its own station. 

Yineyards succeeded vineyards, and olive gardens succeeded olive 
gardens. There were numerous groves of chestnuts, and the driver 
called attention to the fact that the fruit was in excellent condition. 
Frank explained to his mother that the chestnut is a very important 
article of food among the Italian peasantry, and a failure or shrinkage 
in the crop is a serious matter in many parts of the country. 



224 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



In many places the road wound through a forest so dense that a 
delightful shade was afforded against the rays of the sun. The leaves 
of the chestnut-trees, towering above the road, appeared to be very 
numerous, and Mary suggested that it was probably from these trees 




FRESCOS EXECUTED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF RAPHAEL. 



TREE-CULTURE IN ITALY. 225 

that Milton found the ground covered with leaves, and was led to 
make the famous comparison in the lines which have been quoted. The 
birds were singing in the trees, and the rocks at the side of the road 
were covered with ferns and mosses, which gave token of an atmos- 
phere favorable to their growth. 

The chestnut -trees were succeeded by a wide- spreading forest of 
pines, and they were of such luxuriant grow^th as to elicit expressions 
of admiration from the strangers. Frank said that the Yallombrosa 
monks planted these forests, and consequently the thickly-growing trees 
in the region surrounding the convent are due to the pious men who 
came here a long time ago. It is related in the history of the monas- 
tery that between the years 1750 and 1753 the monks planted no fewer 
than 40,000 beech-trees, and during all the time they remained here 
they were unwearied in their efforts at preserving and extending the 
forests ; they must have been very industrious. 

One historian says that when Napoleon ruled over Italy and the sup- 
pression of the monasteries w^as debated in council, he himself being 
present, the point was raised as to whether an exception should not be 
made in favor of Yallombrosa. Several members of the council argued 
that these monks deserved special favor on account of the services they 
had rendered in keeping this solitude free from wild beasts and open to 
travel, and also for the good work they had accomplished in extending 
and preserving the forest. The debate was a long one, and the proba- 
bilities were in favor of the exception being granted when one member 
of the council rose and asked, " Gentlemen, shall w^e have monks or 
wolves ?" The hatred of the monk was so great among the members 
of the council that the response to his question was " Wolves ! Wolves !" 
and thereupon the decision was against Yallombrosa. 

In a little more than two hours after leaving Florence the party 
was at the door of the convent. On their way up the hill Frank 
explained that the Order of Yallombrosa was founded in the early part 
of the eleventh century. The abbots of Yallombrosa were mostly of 
the Florentine Senate, and they had temporal as well as spiritual 
authority in their domains. They are said to have been men renowned 
for their learning and their excellent manners, and it is evident from 
what they have left behind them in their buildings and in the forests 
that their good reputation was well founded. 

The convent, or monastery, exists no longer. For twenty years and 
more the building has been used as an agricultural school, for which it 
is certainly very well adapted. It has a faculty of nine resident pro- 

15 



226 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

fessors, and in addition to the instruction given by the faculty, there 
are frequent lectures by the most eminent men of science in Florence. 
Agriculture is not the only study at this college, as instruction is also 
given in modern languages and in drawing. The elevation of the place 
(2980 feet above the sea-level) causes the winters to be very severe, and 
consequently there is a vacation from the middle of November to the 
first of March. Those of the pupils who wish to continue their studies 
are accommodated at an old monastery lower down tlie valley. 

Fred said there was a curious legend about the way the monastery 
came to be founded. " It seems that about the year 1050 Giovanni 
Gualberto, a member of a powerful and wealthy family of Florence, 
had passed through a career of great dissipation and profligacy. Hav- 




TAPESTRY OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 



ing sowed all his wild oats, he determined to devote the rest of his life 
to the most severe acts of penitence. His elder brother had been assas- 
sinated, and by the custom of the time he was bound by all the sacred 
ties of honor to retaliate by killing the assassin. 

"One day Avhile descending the hill from San Miniato towards Flor- 
ence, and accompanied by a band of his followers, he suddenly met the 
assassin in the middle of the road. The latter was completely in the 
former's power, and fell on his knees and begged for mercy. Giovanni 
raised his sword to strike a deadly blow, but was suddenly moved by a 
generous impulse and lowered the weapon harmlessly to his side. Then 
he forgave his enemy, and immediately made his vow of extreme good- 
behavior for the rest of his life. lie became a monk of San Miniato, 
but finding that the discipline there was not sufficiently severe to meet 
his desires, he went up into the mountains and founded Yallombrosa. 



MONASTERY OF VALLOMBROSA. 227 

The monastery was once very wealthy, but it lost nearly all its posses- 
sions in the general overturn at the time of Napoleon's triumph. 

" The buildings are extensive and massive, and capable of considera- 
ble resistance in case of attack. The church enclosed in them is deco- 
rated with gilt stuccos and fine marbles, and possesses several excellent 
paintings. The monastery was built in the shape of a quadrangle, and 
its accommodations were so extensive that two hundred people could sit 
at the table at once in the refectory ; there is a smaller refectory, which 
was intended for the retinue of visitors of high rank who came to the 
monastery. There are several large halls and rooms, and there is a 
large room intended for the library. Before the French invasion this 
library contained soma very rare books and manuscripts, but nearly 
everything of any value was carried away by the invaders, together 
with some of the finest paintings and a collection of natural history. 

"Down to the time of the last suppression of the monastery, in 1860, 
there was a building outside the convent, called the Foresteria, where 
strangers were received. This building served as a hotel, and meals 
were supplied to gentlemen and ladies of visiting parties. If a party 
wished to remain over night the gentlemen were accommodated with 
comfortable beds in the convent, but the ladies were required to sleep 
in the Foresteria. No charge was made for the entertainment of trav- 
ellers, but it was expected that they would make some remuneration 
for their bed and board. This was usually done by handing the proper 
amount of money to the monk in charge of the building, and asking 
him to distribute it among the servants." 

From Yallombrosa our friends returned down the road to a turning, 
whence they reached Pelago, a little town nestled among the hills near 
the valley of the Arno. The inn where they spent the night was 
thoroughly Italian and endurable, but nothing more. 

When they left in the morning Mrs. Bassett said she was very glad 
to have spent a night in an Italian inn, and more glad to get away from 
it. , She did not enjoy the cookery of the establishment, in which oil 
seemed to have a very prominent place. The steak which they had for 
supper was cooked in oil, the chicken for breakfast appeared to have 
been stewed in oil, and the butter that was placed on the table had 
much more the flavor of oil than of butter. 

The streets of Pelago are narrow, and our friends found many of 
the houses standing open, as though inviting strangers to enter. Most 
of the women were seated in the doorways or at the open windows en- 
gaged in braiding straw, while the men were idling along the principal 



228 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

street, having finished the work, if any, that occupied their attention 
during the middle hours of the day. As for the children, they were 
unceasing in their demands for small coins, and the onl}^ wdv of escaping 
them was by staying in-doors or hiring a guard. 

The weather favored and so did the road, which was a descending 
one in the direction of Florence. Accordingly, our friends returned to 
the city as they had gone from it — in the carriage ; and as they stepped 
from the vehicle to the door of their hotel in the busy street of the city, 
they voted unanimously that they had greatly enjoyed the excursion. 

" There is one thing I wish to see before we leave Florence," Mrs. 
Bassett remarked, shortly after their return from Yallombrosa, while 
she and Mary were seated in the parlor of the hotel. 

Mary asked what it was and where it could be seen. 

" There is a gallery of tapestries here, so I learn from the guide- 
book," was the reply, " and we have not yet seen it. I am interested, 
as you know, in anything of this kind, and if the collection in Florence 
is as good as the collections of painting and statuary that we have seen 
since we came here, it is certainly worth a visit." 

Frank and Fred returned just at the conclusion of this remark, and 
Mary called their attention to Mrs. Bassett's desire to look at the 
tapestries in the gallery devoted to them. 

" I had planned for that to-morrow morning," said Frank. " The 
tapestry collection is in an old palace whose ground-floor is devoted to 
the Egyptian Museum. We have been so much interested in matters 
pertaining particularly to Italy that we have not included the Egyptian 
Museum in our rounds, but I had not forgotten it. The tapestry col- 
lection occupies the second floor of the palace, above the Egyptian Mu- 
seum, and is certainly well worth seeing." 

The party went there, according to the agreement. Mary informed 
herself concerning the tapestry work in the galler}^, so that she was able 
to talk intelligently upon the subject. Here is what she said : 

"The gallery of tapestry in Florence is comparatively new, as it was 
opened in February, 1884. The Florentines claim that there is no other 
institution of the kind in Italy. It contains specimens of the tapestries 
of several centuries, and is specially designed to illustrate the history of 
tapestry-making in Tuscany, Altogether the gallery contains nearly 
one hundred and fifty pieces, made from designs of celebrated artists by 
the workmen of different countries and times. 

" Tapestries were made in Italy in the early part of the fifteenth 
century, the first establishment for their manufacture being at Mantua. 



ITALIAN TAPESTRY WORK. 



229 



By the middle of the sixteenth century Cosmo I. introduced the making 
of tapestries at Florence, and gave liberally towards the starting of the 
industry. He determined that the Florentine factory should surpass all 




CHRIST WASHING THE APOSTLES' FEET. — [Sixteenth Century Tapestry.] 



others in Italy, and to accomplish this end he sought for the best men 
to superintend the work. Two of the most celebrated makers were en- 
gaged at high salaries. They entered into an agreement to teach the 
secret of their art to a stipulated number of Florentine pupils, and they 
were allowed to execute private commissions in addition to their sala- 
ries. The Grand Duke Cosmo I. gave them large orders from his pri- 
vate purse, and these were to be paid for separately. By the terms of 



230 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

their contract they were required to keep twenty-four tapestries in hand 
at all times, so that they could afford the proper instruction to the 
pupils belonging to the school. 

" One of the instructors in this school of tape&try was from Bruges, 
in the Netherlands, where the tapestry industry had long before ob- 
tained great fame. Two or three centuries before the establishment of 
the industry at Florence it had been established at Bruges, workmen 
having gone from that city to Constantinople to learn the secrets of the 
art, and succeeding, though with much difficulty. 

" The representation of pictures by the loom is almost as old as that 
of painting with pigments. Exactly when the first tapestries were 
woven nobody knows, but they date from a long time before the Chris- 
tian era. Previous to the invention of the art of weaving pictures the 
art of embroidery had long been practised. Its origin is likewise un- 
known, but it certainly began in the very earliest periods of civilization. 
We are told in the Bible and elsewhere that the Babylonians wove dif- 
ferent colors into their cloths, and the Egyptians did the same thing. 

" When the Temple of Jerusalem was restored by King Herod he 
adorned it with Babylonian tapestries, and we also read that Nero spent 
an enormous sum of mone}^ for the tapestries that decorated his dining- 
room. For a long time the tapestries used in Kome and other parts of 
Italy were imported from the East, and it was quite to be expected that 
as the people progressed in arts and sciences they would take up that of 
weaving tapestry. And this brings us down to the introduction of the 
art into European countries, as already mentioned. 

'' The earliest specimen of tapestry in this gallery belongs to the 
fourteenth century. The colors are deep and clear ; evidently they have 
suffered little, if any, since the pictures that they delineate were woven. 
In these earlier Avorks the colors that were used were symbolical. White 
represented purity; red, charity; green, contemplation ; and livid colors, 
tribulation. An old treatise on the subject explains fully the character 
of the colors used in the work, and what they meant. 

" One of the best specimens of the early Florentine tapestry is pre- 
served in this gallery, and was made between the years 1591 and 1609. 
The catalogue says it is from a cartoon by Alessandro Allori, which 
represents Christ washing the Apostles' feet. Not only is the picture 
very carefully executed in all its details, but the border is equally worthy 
of admiration. It is a very intricate and elaborate piece of work. 

" There are other tapestries representing home scenes, and one which 
shows Henry II. and Catherine de' Medici, with the ladies of their 




A HOME INTERIOR OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



232 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



court, witnessing games given in their honor. I wish you could see the 
wonderful art displayed in the embroidery of the ladies' dresses. In 
this piece, as in most of the others, the colors are admirably preserved, 
and show that the art of dyeing embroidery materials has not been 
improved upon very much in our day. 

" In order to afford comparisons, there are specimens of French, 
Flemish, and other tapestries ; but I have neither time nor space to 
give you a description of them, and, furthermore, a detailed account 
would be out of place when our chief object of consideration is the 
tapestry of Italy." 




THE FALL OF PHAETHON. — [Italian tapestry of the eighteenth centurj 



CHAPTER XIII. 

LEAVING FLORENCE. — EMPOLL— THE VALLEY OF THE ELSA. — A PICTURESQUE 
COUNTRY.— BOCCACCIO'S BIRTHPLACE.— THE "DECAMERON."— PETRARCH, AND 
WHAT HE WROTE.— ARIOSTO, AND HIS GREAT POEM.— TASSO.—" JERUSALEM 
DELIVERED."— TASSO'S IMPRISONMENT.— SIENA.— AN ANCIENT CITY, AND ITS 
HISTORY.— THE PLAGUE IN SIENA; NOTES ON THE CHARACTER AND ORIGIN 
OF THE PLAGUE; ITS DEVASTATIONS IN EUROPE.— MONUMENTS IN THE CATHE- 
DRAL OF SIENA.— WONDERFUL MOSAICS.— CARVED PULPIT BY PISANO.— ST. 
CATHERINE OF SIENA ; THE HOUSE WHERE SHE LIVED ; HISTORY OF THE 
SAINT.— GUIDO RENI'S PAINTING.— ST. CATHERINE OF ALEXANDRIA.— WOOD- 
CARVING AT SIENA; ANTIQUITY OF THE INDUSTRY.— A CHEAP PLACE OF 
RESIDENCE. — THE BAPTISTERY. — PALAZZO PUBBLICO. — PIAZZA VITTORIA 
EMANUELE.— GREAT FESTIVAL OF SIENA.— HORSE-RACING OF A PECULIAR 
KIND. 



THE clay came in due course 
when our friends bade fare- 
Avell to Florence and continued 
their journey. When Mrs. Bas- 
sett asked where they were to go 
next, Frank recalled the old say- 
ing, ''All roads lead to Eome," 
and added that Eome was their 
objective point. 

''But we will not go directly 
there," said he. "It is rather a 
long ride to make continuously, 
and as we wish to see something 
of the country we will break the 
journey at one or two points." 

" That will be quite satisfac- 
tory to me," said Mrs. Bassett ; 
" in fact, I think it preferable to 
taking the direct train, as most 
of our countrymen are said to 
do. Where shall we stop first ? 




LUDOVICO ARIOSTO. 



At an 



interesting 



place, I hope." 



234 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



" Fred and I have planned to go to Siena," was the reply. " Siena 
is about one hundred miles from here, and the journey to it can be made 
in three or four hours. We will pass through a picturesque country, 




DANTE AT RAVENNA. 



and most parts of it have a his- 
toric interest. We will learn more 
about the region when we are on 
the railway train." 

The party took the train from 
Florence in the direction of Pisa, 
but did not continue far towards 
the latter city. The line followed the banks of the Arno, passing the 
Cascine and numerous villas, and on either hand there were vineyards 
and olive gardens that filled the near landscape, while in the back- 
ground ranges of hills and mountains met the sky. At the station at 
Empoli the line to Siena leaves the one going to Pisa, and accordingly the 
train on which the travellers were proceeding turned away to the left. 
Mary asked if there was anything to be seen at Empoli, to which 



BOCCACCIO'S HOUSE. 



235 



Frank replied that the place contained some old buildings and narrow 
streets, and had a population of live or six thousand. " I don't think it 
worth our while to stop here," said Frank, " after our surfeit of old and 
fine buildings during our stay in Florence." 

Mary was of the same opinion, and as the train moved on Empoli 
was left behind, not only in its position on their route, but quite behind 
in their memories, which were just a little confused. 

In leaving Empoli the travellers also left the Arno and entered the 
valley of the Elsa, one of the tributaries of the former river. Our friends 
observed that the country was fertile and well peopled, and that several 
hills on either side of the valley were crowned with castles. At the 
stations where they stopped, little groups of inhabitants watched the 
train with that air of listless indo- 
lence which betokens idleness and 
a contented mind that does not 
worry itself much about the af- 
fairs of every-day life. 

Frank pointed out a town, on 
the hill-side to the left, which was 
the native place of the poet Boc- 
caccio. Mrs. Bassett asked how 
long it was since he lived, to which 
Frank responded that the death 
of the poet occurred in 1375. 
" Boccaccio's house is shown to 
visitors," said Frank; "but after 
the house of Michael Angelo, I 
don't think it would possess any 
great interest for us." 

The mention of Boccaccio 
naturally led to a question by 
Mary regarding the Italian poets. 
Dante had already been discussed 
during their visits to Yerona and 
Florence, and Mrs. Bassett asked if 
Boccaccio was considered as great 
a poet as the author of Inferno. 

" He does not take as high rank as Dante," replied Frank ; " in fact, 
the works by which he is best known are not poetical compositions, but 
prose. His most famous production is the Decameron^ which furnished 




FRANCESCO PETRARCH. 



236 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

Shakespeare with several of his plays, and has been used by other writers 
both before and since Shakespeare's time. One critic, in speaking of 
Shakespeare's play ' All's Well that Ends Well,' says that the Bard of 
Avon dramatized the original novel with great care, and preserved all 
its character and spirit without improving upon it, which is impossible. 
Boccaccio wrote a history of Dante's life, and delivered lectures on 
the same subject. Dante has probably a hundred readers where Boc- 
caccio has one, and this circumstance may be considered in any com- 
parison of merit which is made between the two men. 

'' It is generally considered, I believe," said Frank, '^ that the next 
great poet of Italy Avas Petrarch. He followed Dante very closely, as 
he was seventeen years old when the latter died, and profited greatly by 
Dante's misfortune and sad experiences of life." 

" How was that ?" Mrs. Bassett asked. 

'' Why, Dante died in poverty and an exile from Florence. He had 
taken part in the civil government of the city, and was for a time its 
chief magistrate. The opposite party came into power, and Dante was 
fined heavily, banished, and even sentenced to be burned alive. He fled 
from the city, and spent the greater part of the rest of his life at Ka- 
venna, sometimes in actual want and always in poverty. He repeatedly 
tried to get back to Florence, but could not do so. As soon as he was 
dead the people of Italy seemed to wake to the conviction that he was 
a man of genius, and had been of material help to his country. The 
whole of Italy went into mourning for him, and a costly monument was 
raised to his memory at Eavenna, the city wdiere he had suffered for 
w^ant of bread. The people of Florence, who had driven him out, sent 
a petition to the authorities of Ravenna asking for the poet's body that 
they might bury it with high honors in the sepulchre of his ancestors. 
His poems became famous at once, and were everywhere read and re- 
cited, and his popularity continues down to the present day. 

"This explains the good -fortune that I attributed to Petrarch in 
being seventeen years old when Dante died. He, no doubt, shared in 
the general lamentation of the fate of the great poet, and was stimulated 
to his own work by Dante's example. He Avas treated in just the oppo- 
site manner in which Dante had been treated. Great men of all countries 
sought to know him. Kings and princes endeavored to do him honor; 
and he was invited to Eome, where he was received by a triumphal pro- 
cession, escorted through the streets, and crowned by the Pope with a 
laurel crown. His opinions were adopted as the opinions of the time, 
and one writer says he was almost the arbitrator of Europe in the period 




CORONATION OF PETRARCH. 



238 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



in which he lived. He was not so great a poet as Dante, but he was a 
most earnest advocate of the revival of learning, and did much towards 
awakening the taste for Greek and Koman literature which prevailed in 
Italy during the fourteenth century and afterwards." 

Frank paused, and Fred said he had a word to say about another 
celebrated Italian poet whose history he had been reading. 

" Who is that ?" queried Frank. 
"I refer to Ariosto," was the re- 
ply. " He was born in 1474 at Eeggio, 
and was a man of the world and of 
society. History says of him that he 
was witty, sensible, and had good 
taste, and his works contained no 
trace of poetic melancholy. His great 
poem is entitled ' Orlando Furioso,' 
and he occupied eleven years in writ- 
ing it. I won't attempt to recite or 
read it to you, as it contains thirty- 
eight thousand lines," continued Fred. 
" How many pages would that 
be altogether ?" Mary asked. 

" Well, you can easily figure it for 

yourself," said Fred. " Suppose there 

are thirty lines to a page. Divide 

thirty-eight thousand by thirty, and you have the length in ordinary 

pages of Ariosto's famous poem ' Orlando Furioso.' " 

The girl made a brief calculation, and then concluded she would not — 
at least, for the present — undertake to read this great work of the famous 
fifteenth century poet. She said it was no wonder it took him so long 
to write the poem, in view of its great length and also great reputation. 
" There is an Italian poem I have been reading, or, rather, an English 
translation of it," Mary continued, " which I found very interesting. It 
is Tasso's ' Jerusalem Delivered.' I don't know how closely the transla- 
tion follows the original, but certainly the poem is a very interesting one." 
''Yes," said Fred; "I read it some time ago, or portions of it, and it 
gives a very good idea of the Crusades and the beliefs that prevailed at 
that time. When reading it I could easily imagine myself in the camp 
of the Crusaders, and in the presence of those famous knights who went 
to Palestine to redeem Jerusalem from the hands of the infidel. I re- 
member particularly the description of the scene when the Crusaders first 




ARIOSTO S INKSTAND. 



JERUSALEM DELIVERED. 



239 



came in sight of the Holy City. Let me see if I can repeat a verse of it, 
which I shall do from memory, and therefore may not give it correctl}^" 
Thereupon Fred paused a moment, and then recited the following : 

"* Wing'd is each heart, and winged every heel ; 
They fly, yet notice not how fast they fly ; 
But by the time tlie dewless meads reveal 
The fervent sun ascended in the sky, 
Lo, tower'd Jerusalem salutes the eye ! 
A thousand pointing fingers tell the tale ; 
"Jerusalem !" a thousand voices cry, 
"All hail, Jerusalem !" hill, down, and dale 
Catch the glad sounds, and shout, "Jerusalem, all hail !" '" 

" Yes," said Frank, " I remember reading that very verse. I found 
the poem very interesting and picturesque, and I remember reading, too, 
of Tasso's life, which was certainly a very unhappy one. He was born 
in 1544, and died at the age of forty-one. He was always poor and de- 
pendent upon patrons, and none of the great men with whom he con- 
stantly associated seems ever to have thought of giving proper support 
to the poet. For several years he was confined in prison as a lunatic, 
where he was at first lodged among 
paupers, and afterwards kept under a 
strict guard and fed on the poorest 
food. At the end of seven years he 
was released; but his health was so 
shattered that it was evident to every 
one he could not live long. He was 
invited to Rome, and when he neared 
the city was met by a large caval- 
cade of troops and escorted through 
the gates. He received the blessings 
of the Pope, and was courted and 
flattered by Society and the popu- 
lace ; the Pope promised to give him 
the laurel crown, and the day for 

his coronation was appointed. Preparations were made for a splendid 
pageant on that day, but before it arrived he died." 

" His life was not altogether unlike that of Dante," Mrs. Bassett re- 
marked. "Florence condemned Dante to be burned to death, while 
Tasso's life was passed in poverty and prison almost to its very end." 

" Yes," said Frank ; " Italy seems to have treated her poets and ex- 




ARIOSTO'S CHAIR. 



240 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



plorers very much in the same way. Nearly all were honored after 
death, when they were honored at all." 

The conversation about Italian poets was several times interrupted 

by observation of the panorama 
which was unrolled on either side 
of the travellers as the train sped 
onward. As they approached Si- 
ena they found that the line of 
railway ascended among the hills 
and mountains until that venerable 
city was reached. 

Siena stands well up among the 
hills of Tuscany, and its fine position 
gives it a delightful climate. The at- 
mosphere in summer is much cooler 
than that of the lower ground near 
the coast, and the place has the rep- 
utation of being one of the health- 
iest in Italy. It is a ver}^ old city 
as well as a healthy one. Anciently 
it was called Sena Julia, or Colonia 
Julia Senensis ; it is said to have 
been founded by the Senonian 
Gauls, and converted into a Eoman 
colony by the Emperor Augustus. 
It was a prosperous city for several 
centuries, and attained the height 
of its glory during the Middle Ages. Now it has a population of 
twenty thousand ; at one time it had two hundred thousand inhabitants, 
and was a keen rival of Florence in wealth and in devotion to art. In 
the sixteenth century the Medicis of Florence gradually gained an in- 
fluence over Siena, and finally obtained full control of it. 

Siena retains the greater part of its old walls, and the railway station 
where our friends stopped is outside the city. From the station they 
drove through the San Lorenzo gate, and were not long in reaching the 
centre of the place. Mrs. Bassett called attention to the narrow and 
crooked streets, which Frank said were due to their having been laid out 
long before wheeled vehicles were in general use ; but in spite of their 
narrowness and tortuous character, the streets abound in handsome 
buildings, nearly all of them very old. 




TORQUATO TASSO. 



SIGHTS OF SIENA. 



241 



Fred called attention to the prevalence of the Gothic style of archi- 
tecture in the palaces and churches to an extent they had not observed 
in any city of Italy that they had yet visited. 

" We shall find some very interesting churches here," said Frank, 
" and we must not fail to visit the Palazzo Pubblico, or Town-hall." 




TASSO IN PRISON. 



The honor of telling the story of what the party saw in Siena fell 
upon Fred, to whom we will now listen for a while. 

''The first building of importance that we saw," said the youth, 
" was the cathedral, which occupies the most elevated position in the 
city. From every direction as you approach Siena the towers and walls 



16 



242 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

of the cathedral are plainly visible, rising above all the surrounding 
buildings ; in fact, it was the first object that caught our eyes when the 
train neared the city. It is said to stand on the site of an older church, 
and they say further that this older church occupied the place where 
the Eomans built the Temple of Minerva. The present building was 
begun in the eleventh century ; but it was a long time in construction, 
and has undergone several alterations. At one time the plan was that 
the present building should merely be the transept of a much larger 
edifice. Siena suffered from the plague in 1348, and its history tells us 
that eighty thousand inhabitants of the city died of the disease. After 
the plague had subsided the old design for the cathedral was aban- 
doned, and the present edifice was completed." 

At that point Mrs. Bassett interrupted Fred, and remarked that the 
plague had been mentioned several times during their travels ; every 
time she had wished to ask something about it, but had failed to do so. 
Could either of the youths tell her what the plague was ? 

"I will do so with pleasure," said Fred, "and the information may be 
interesting to Mary as well as to yourself. The plague is a very malig- 
nant kind of fever, and it prevails at certain times and places as an 
epidemic. It is supposed to have originated in Asia ; some authorities 
say that it started in China, and gradually spread from there through 
Asia and into Europe. The visitation from which Siena suffered was 
about the middle of the fourteenth centur}^, and the disease at that time 
spread throughout Europe. In addition to being called the ' Plague ' it 
was known as the ' Black Death,' and it took this name from the black 
spots which at certain stages of the disease appear on the face of the 
victim, and sometimes spread all over the body." 

" What were the characteristics of the disease ?" Mrs. Bassett asked. 

" The history of it is not very clear," replied Fred ; " but it is said to 
have been characterized by great numbers of boils or carbuncles on the 
arms and face — and, in fact, all over the bodies — of those who were sub- 
ject to it. Sometimes the black spots appeared before these boils 
formed, while at others the spots and the boils were distinct from each 
other. The victim of the plague usually suffered at first from dizziness 
and fever of the brain ; then he was overcome by stupor or listlessness ; 
then his tongue swelled greatly and turned black, and he was unable to 
speak ; this was followed by a burning thirst, which could not be allayed ; 
then came inflammation of the lungs, together with the boils and sores 
that I mentioned, accompanied by terrible pains all over the body. The 
power of the will over the muscles was very much impaired, so that a 



THE PLAGUE IN SIENA. 



243 



person suffering from the plague while attempting to walk was sure to 
reel and stagger about like one greatly intoxicated." 

" How long did it take for the disease to run its course ?" was the 
question which very naturally followed this explanation. 

" Where the plague was fatal, its course occupied usually about five 
or six days ; in case the patient recovered, he remained for a long time 
very weak and unable to move, except with great effort." 

'' Have they ever discovered a way to cure or prevent it f ' 




TASSO AX THE COURT OF FERRARA. 



" As to that," replied Fred, " there is considerable difference of 
opinion, both as to the cause and proper mode of treatment. Some au- 
thorities claim that it spreads only by contagion ; others maintain that 
it is epidemic, like cholera ; while still others assert that it originates en- 
tirely from local causes. It does not prevail in tropical climates, and it 
is greatly checked by the cold of the Xorth. It has always been 
most fatal in Europe during the summer and autumn, especially in 
September. No treatment has been found that will cure the plague, 



244 



THE BOY TKAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



^\ - ^ -■ 




but it can be greatly reduced or altogether 
prevented by careful sanitary measures, in the 
same way that cholera is guarded against." 

" That is the same disease that they had in 
London in 1665, is it not ?" queried Mary. 

" Yes," said Fred ; '' the Black Death, or 
great Plague of London, in the year you men- 
tion, was probably the same as the one that 
desolated Siena and other Italian cities three 
centuries earher. The great Plague of Lon- 
don lasted about six months. The deaths 
from it were as follows : in June, 590 ;. 
in July, 4129 ; in August, 20,046 ; in 
September, 26,230 ; in October, 14,373 ; 
in November, 3449 ; 
and in December 
the number was. 




PALAZZO PTIBBLICO, SIENA, 



about the same as in June, tlie month of the commencement of the 
disease. A month later it disappeared altogether. 

'^ To continue this subject a little," said Fred, " the plague prevailed 
in China for fifteen years before it reached Europe. Previous to its out- 
break, China suffered from droughts, famines, floods, earthquakes, and 
immense swarms of locusts Avhich devoured every green thing in the 



HISTORY OF THE PLAGUE. 245 

parts of the country they infested. The plague followed these calam- 
ities. The statistics concerning it are, of course, obscure ; but it is said 
that thirteen million people died in China alone, and in the rest of Asia 
about twenty-four million. The plague came from China by the vari- 
ous caravan routes that then connected the East and the West. It came 
to Constantinople along the coast of the Black Sea, and from Constan- 
tinople it reached the seaports of Italy, and from there spread through 
Europe. Italy lost one-half of its population at that time, and Germany 
is said to have lost more than a million of its inhabitants. 

" Some authorities estimate that twenty-five million people died in 
Europe during the three years that the plague prevailed here. The 
mortality was so great that sometimes the living were not able to bury 
the dead. In some places bodies were cast by thousands into great 
pits, and in other instances rivers were consecrated in order that they 
might be used as tombs, and the bodies of those who died from the 
plague were thrown into the water to drift away with the current. 
There are accounts of ships, whose entire crews had died of the plague, 
drifting through the Black Sea, the Mediterranean, and out upon the 
Atlantic Ocean, and stories are told of towns and villages where every 
inhabitant perished of this dread disease. One of the best accounts of 
the ravages of the plague and the scenes to which it gave rise is to be 
found in Boccaccio's Decameron^ which we have already discussed. 

" And now," said Fred, as he paused for a moment, '' let us drop 
the plague and return to the subject of the cathedral. 

" The cathedral is a magnificent building," said the youth in his 
narrative, '' although it is much smaller than it was originally intended 
to be. It is built of black and white marble ; it has its campanile at- 
tached to and forming a part of it, and not standing b}^ itself like the 
campanile of the Cathedral of Florence. ]^othing but a photograph or 
a very careful drawing can give you an idea of the elaborate work upon 
the columns of this cathedral and a considerable portion of the walls. 
I secured some photographs both of the exterior and the interior of the 
building, and will have some of them accompany this description. 

" It seemed to all of us that the bewildering assemblage of statues, 
pinnacles, columns, and mosaics in the fagade of the cathedral detracted 
from the general effects. Such an amount of carving spread over a 
larger area would be much more pleasing to the eye. The description 
of the cathedral tells us that Mccolo Pisano w^as the designer of the 
fa9ade, and you will remember that we saw some of his work at Pisa, 
and also, I believe, at Florence. The most elaborate of the columns 



24,6 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 




AT THK KNTRANCJK OK THK CATUKPnAL. 



were generally the most ancient 
of them, the tendency of the 
constructors in the latter peri- 
od of the work being towards 
plainer styles than those in 
which the building was begun. 
In the interior there are twa 
rows of marble pillars which 
divide the nave, and the col- 
umns of both rows are orna- 
mented with busts of the popes, 
from the earliest of them down 
to Alexander III. 

" Near the entrance door the 

o-uide called our attention to a 

vase for holy -water, and said 

that the pedestal on which it 

stands was found in the ruins of 

the Temple of Minerva, which 

formerly occupied this spot. 

Thus a piece of marble which 

was originally shaped to 

form an ornament for a 

heathen temple has been 

appropriated to use in a 

Christian church. 

'' The pavement is 
one of the most cu- 
rious pavements we 
have ever seen. Gen- 
erally speaking, it 
may be called a mo- 
saic. It consists 
of different col- 
ored marbles in- 
laid with each 
other, and repre- 
senting scenes 
from the Old 
Testament. In 



A FAMOUS CATHEDRAL. 



247 



some places these mosaics were covered with boards to protect them 
from the feet of visitors. The custodian removed the boards so that we 
could look at the pictures, and of course he expected and received a fee 
in return for his services. It seems to me that the pavement is much 
less Hable to be injured by the footsteps of those who come into the 
church than by the frequent handling of the boards above them. The 
real object of the covering is probably to increase the revenues of the 
building or of the men who have it in charge. These mosaics were made 
by some of the best artists of their time, and several of these artists are 
represented by paintings in various parts of the church. 

"The paintings belonging to the cathedral would of themselves 
make an admirable collection; but they could not be removed, as a con- 
siderable part of them consists of 
frescos on the solid walls. One of the 
frescos represents scenes from the 
hfe of Pope Pius II., and there is 
another fresco which represents the 
coronation of his nephew, Pius III., 
who reigned only twenty-seven days. 
Both of these popes were natives of 
Siena, and this is why the great events 
of their lives are commemorated. 

" The finest of the pavement pict- 
ures are in front of the high altar, 
and we were all surprised at the ex- 
pressiveness which the artists were 
able to give in the faces and attitudes 
of the subjects of their work. Each of 
the pictures is enclosed in a border of 
black and white mosaic in very deli- 
cate patterns. I bought a drawing of 
a portion of one of these borders, and 
shall keep it as an interesting me- 
mento of our visit to the cathedral. 

"I must not fail to mention as 
one of the curiosities of the church 

the marble pulpit, which was designed by Pisano, and certainly does him 
very great credit. Some of the columns rest on the backs of lions, and 
the upper part of the pulpit is surrounded by a screen of marble present- 
ing a great many figures in high and low relief. 




HOLY-WATER VASE, WITH PAGAN PEDESTAL. 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 




MOSAIC BORDER ON THE FLOOR OF THE CATHEDRAL. 



For a long time one of the special indus- 
tries of Siena was the working of iron. The 
hinges of the doors and w^indows of the houses 
reminded us of some of the iron-work of Ger- 
many and Holland, and we observed as we went about the city some very 
elaborate gates, also of iron, wdiich are placed inside the principal doors 
of the best of the houses. Then they have lantern-holders placed along 
the front of every palace, and usually on each story, so that they add 
very much to the picturesqueness of the streets. Some of these lantern- 
holders are in the forms of leaves or flowers, and some represent the 
heads of various kinds of animals. Many of the windows in Siena are 
of stained glass, and some of this glass dates from a long time ago. 

"In the cathedral and elsewhere we saw several pictures of St. 
Catherine, and learned that she was a native of Siena. According to 
history, she was born here in 1347, and became a nun about 1366. She 
is said to have negotiated a peace between the Florentines and Pope 
Urban YI. in 1378 ; she favored Pope Urban when his authority was 
disputed by Clement YIL, and made very earnest efforts to terminate 
the quarrel between them. We were told that we could visit her house, 
and did not neglect the opportunity to do so. 

" The house stands in one of the poorest parts of the city, which is 
now, as in the fourteenth centur}^, the quarter occupied by the fullers 
and dyers; St. Catherine, it seems, was the daughter of a dyer and fuller. 
Close by is the old fountain of Fontebranda, which is mentioned by 
Dante in one of liis poems. A portion of the original building has been 
torn down, but the cell which St. Catherine inhabited is said to be in 
exactly the same condition as when she lived there. 

" It is a little room not more than eight feet long by six in width, 
and has no window whatever ; the only light that comes into it is by a 
door through which the cell is entered. So many people have visited 



ST. CATHERINE OF SIENA. 



249 



the place that the floor, originally of brick, has been partially worn 
away, and is now protected by wooden boards. The stone which served 
St. Catherine for a pillow is covered by a plate of glass, so that it can 
be seen but not touched. The walls of the cell are entirely bare of 
ornaments, the onlv decoration of anv kind in the room beino^ a crucifix. 




MARBLE PULPIT. — [Niccolo Pisano. 



250 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



The rest of the house has been converted into oratories and little 
chapels ; the walls are ornamented with frescos representing the life 
of St. Catherine, and there is a miraculous crucifix which she is said to 
have carried. Some of these frescos are excellent, and some are very 
ordinary; the best of them is not nearly as fine as the one in the 
Church of San Domenico, which was painted by Sodoma, an artist of 
great fame in his day, though little known at present. 

" They showed us in this church a shrine above the altar, where the 
head of St. Catherine is preserved. We asked why the head only was 

kept there, and it was explained 
that St. Catherine died in Rome 
and was buried there. Her con- 
fessor was unAvilling that her na- 
tive city, Siena, should be deprived 
of the relic ; he endeavored to ob- 
tain permission to bring her body 
here, but the request was refused, 
and he took his opportunity to 
remove the head and convey it 
surreptitiously to Siena. 

'' We heard of a beautiful pict- 
ure of St. Catherine in one of the 
palaces in Siena, but were unable 
to see it. It is said to have been 
painted by Guido Reni, and repre- 
sents St. Catherine kneeling be- 
fore a table on which are resting 
a crucifix and a skull, together 
with a lily, which was her emblem. 
Her eyes are fastened on the cru- 
cifix, and the expression of her 
face is said to be a perfect deline- 
ation of the love and grief that she feels for her Saviour. One writer 
who has seen the picture speaks of it as follows : 

" ' Her face expresses not so much contrition as tenderness ; the 
thought of the cause of the Redeemer's sufferings seems to be lost in 
that of His ineffable condescension. She is not thinking of herself, but 
of Him. She wears a crown of thorns above her veil, and you feel that 
there are blood-drops where they have pierced the tender skin beneath 
it; but the painter, with rare insight, has not weakened the impression 




PANEL IN PRINCIPAL DOOR OF THE . CATHEDRAL 




FACADE OF THK BAPTISTERY. 



by making them visible ; nor are there tears upon the cheeks, although 
we know that intense gaze is the prelude to an agony of weeping. Her 
lips are parted, as if in wonder and awe, and her whole attitude seems 
to say, " I have found Him whom my soul loveth." ' 

"St. Catherine of Siena must not be confounded with St. Catherine 



252 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

of Alexandria, who suffered martyrdom in tlie fourth century by being 
tortured on a wheel before being put to death. From this circumstance 
comes the name of St. Catherine's wheel. 

" We saw, while going about the city, many fine specimens of wood- 
carving, and bought several of them to send home. Wood-carving is 
quite an industry here, and has been for a very long time. The orna- 
mentation of the cathedral and other churches shows that the people of 
Siena were experts at wood-carving centuries ago, and they have been 
very successful in preserving this industry down to the present time. 
Their wood-carving differs somewhat from that of Switzerland and the 
T3^rol, as it is not so much devoted to toys and small figures as to furni- 
ture and the carved work of doors and ceilings. 

" Yery elaborate sets of furniture are made here, and find their way 
to all parts of the world. Many excellent specimens of the antique 
wood-carving of Siena can be seen here, but it is very difficult to buy 
them, as the people are very unwilling to part with any of their ancient 
heirlooms, and only do so when greatly in need of money. There is a con- 
siderable quantity of ancient armor in the old palaces, and the stranger 
properly introduced may look at it ; but if he endeavors to purchase it 
he is met with an emphatic shake of the head. 

" We were pleased to learn that in this city a considerable portion of 
the old palaces are occupied by the descendants of those who built 
them, which is rarely the case in Venice and the other Italian cities that 
Ave have visited. The people do not seem to be wealthy, as a general 
thing ; but the owners of the palaces usually have sufficient incomes to 
support them in-a modest and frugal way. 

'' If we were going to stop anywhere in Italy and select a residence, 
I don't know a more agreeable place than this — at least, for a while. The 
guide who has shown us around the city says that a good apartment of 
ten rooms, well furnished, can be hired for $20 a month, wliile $30 a 
month will hire a furnished villa. Provisions are abundant and cheap, 
and a good cook can be hired for $3 a month. We were told that there 
are many foreign families living here, partly for economical reasons and 
partly because it is a good place to educate their children. 

The Italian spoken at Siena is the purest Tuscan, and there are ex- 
cellent tutors and governesses to take charge of children. There is a 
university here, and it has a library of 50,000 volumes and 5000 manu- 
scripts. We were shown through the library, and saw some of the 
manuscripts, which date back to the eighth and ninth centuries. 

" We visited the Baptistery, which is a rival of the cathedral in pictu- 



ANCIENT AND MODERN FESTIVALS. 



253 



resqueness; it is in the rear of the cathedral, and has a beautiful fa9ade in 
the Gothic style, and a brazen font which dates from the fifteenth century. 

" From the Baptistery we went to the Palazzo Pubblico, which was 
built in 1293. It stands at one side of the Piazza Yittorio Emmanuele, 
which is the public square of Siena, and the central part of the city. 
The Palazzo has a castellated appearance, and at one corner of it there 
is a lofty campanile, with a clock about 
one-third the distance from the base 
to the summit. N'ear this building 
we stopped in front of a small chapel, 
which is a reminder of the plague, of 
which I have already told you ; it was 
built after the cessation of the plague, 
and was intended to commemorate the 
deliverance of the city from its visita- 
tion. The campanile is more than 
four hundred feet high, and in its top 
is a great bell, which is rung only on 
the most important occasions. We 
went through the Palazzo, and saw 
some beautiful frescos and the por- 
traits of eight popes and thirty-nine 
cardinals who were natives of Siena. 

" The Piazza Yittorio Emmanuele, 
anciently called the Campo, Avas the 
scene of the festivities and popular as- 
semblages in the old days of the Re- 
public of Siena, and also in the time 
of the Romans. They cling to old 
customs here to a wonderful degree. 
They have their festivities still, and 
the greatest of them all is held on 
August 15th (Assumption Day). It 
is as great an affair for a native of 
Siena as the Fourth of July is for the 

people in the United States, and for weeks and months before its cele- 
bration everybody is looking forward to a great event. 

"The principal feature of the festival is horse -racing; the horses 
are Corsican ponies, and the races take place in the Piazza. Rows of 
seats are arranged in front of the buildings surrounding the square, and 




SIENESE PEASANT WOMAN. 



254 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



the carriage road is covered with a thick layer of earth, which is beaten 
down so as to form a good track for the horses. There are several 
sharp turns in making the circuit, and in order to save the jockeys in 

case of a fall, mattresses are placed 
at the side of the track at the turn- 
ings. It sometimes happens that 
every jockey is thrown off, and 
there is rarely a race when all the 
riders are able to keep their sad- 
dles during the entire performance. 
" There are ten horses from as 
many districts of the city, and be- 
fore the race each horse is taken to 
the church of his district and blessed 
by the priest. At the appointed 
time all the horses and jockeys are 
assembled in front of the judges' 
stand in the square, and at a given 
signal they start for the grand race. 
The jockeys carry strong whips, 
which they use very vigorously, not 
only upon the horses, but upon each 
other; and sometimes the riders are 
seriously injured by the blows from 
the whips. The horses make three 
rounds, their running distance be- 
ing about a mile, and the winning 
horse receives a silk banner, which 
is given to the district whence he 
comes. The winning jockey re- 
ceives a prize of money from the city, and also one from his district. 
"The whole population turns out to witness the performance; and 
not only the population of the city, but of all the surrounding country. 
A gentleman who has been present at several of these races says he 
has seen as many as forty thousand people in and around the Piazza 
Yittorio Emmanuele on the day of the great race. In the evening there 
is a grand festival in the winning district, a long table being placed in 
the middle of one of its principal streets. The view of the table, with 
the feasters crowded about it, and the whole scene lighted up by 
lanterns and torches, is said to be very picturesque." 




SIENESE PKASANT GIRL IN HOLIDAY DRESS. 



CHAPTER XIY. 

FROM SIENA TO ROME.— A DESOLATE REGION.— CROSSING THE DIVIDING RANGE. 
—THE VALLEY OF THE TIBER.— ORVIETO.— THE MIRACLE OF BOLSENA.— 
CATHEDRAL OF ORVIETO.— ETRURIA AND THE ETRUSCANS.— A PREHISTORIC 
RACE.— ETRUSCAN REMAINS. — PAINTINGS ON THE WALLS OF TOMBS.— ETRUS- 
CAN SCULPTURES.— HOUSEHOLD UTENSILS, ORNAMENTS, AND WAYS OF LIFE. 
—WAR BETWEEN ROMANS AND ETRUSCANS.— BOATS ON THE TIBER; LENGTH 
AND PECULIARITIES OF THE RIVER.— FIRST SIGHT OF ROME.— THOUGHTS OF 
MRS. BASSETT AND MARY.— THE CORSO.— FOUNTAIN OF TREVI, AND LEGEND 
CONNECTED WITH IT.— WHEN WAS ROME FOUNDED ?— A DRIVE THROUGH THE 
CITY.— SCRAPS OF HISTORY. 



FROM Siena our friends 
proceeded in the direc- 
tion of Rome, and as they 
left the former city they 
found that the railway 
continued to ascend, while 
its course lay through a 
rugged and comparatively 
barren district. The mount- 
ains surrounding them 
were rough and forbidding 
in aspect. Here and there 
were hills of sand, and 
sometimes as far as they 
could see in any direction no 
houses were visible. They 
passed through several tun- 
nels, and after looking a 
while at the landscape we 
have described, Mrs. Bas- 
sett said she thought the 

scenery in a tunnel was pretty nearly as attractive as that outside. 
The travellers crossed a range of hills, and then found that their 




AN ETRUSCAN GATEWAY. 



256 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



way was a descending one. They were interested in knowing that 
they were now in the valley of the Tiber ; the impetuous and brawling 
little river on whose banks they soon found themselves was the Paglia, 
a tributary of the Tiber, which is said to cause great damage sometimes 
durino" the rainy season. Their first stopping-place — and, in fact, their 




AN ETRUSCAN ARCHWAY. 



only one before reaching the Imperial City — was Orvieto, which is 
picturesquely situated on a high rock more than thirteen hundred feet 
above the sea -level, and six or seven hundred feet above the Paglia, 
which winds through the valley below. Orvieto is said to have been 
settled by the Eomans ; during the Middle Ages it was a stronghold 
which could defy all attacks by outside foes, unless they were able to 
sit down and wait until the garrison was starved out. It is now a 
small town and of little consequence, except for its antiquities and its 
cathedral, which is one of the finest specimens of Italian Gothic archi- 
tecture in existence. Here is Avhat Frank wrote concerning it : 

" The Cathedral of Orvieto reminded us of the cathedrals of Flor- 
ence and Siena in its mode of construction, as it is built of black and 
white marble, and its fa9ade is richly decorated with mosaics and 
sculptures. It is said to have been founded in consequence of the mir- 
acle of Bolsena, and its construction was begun in 1290; l)ut the build- 



THE MIRACLE OF BOLSENA. 



257 



ing was not completed until the sixteenth century. Perhaps you would 
like to know what the miracle of Bolsena was. This is its history, as I 
find it in the description of the cathedral : 

'"A Bohemian priest had expressed grave doubts respecting transub- 
stantiation, and a miracle was performed to convince him. He had 
just consecrated the host in one of the Church ceremonies when he ob- 
served the miraculous appearance of drops of blood upon it. He called 
the attention of his fellow-priest to the miracle, and the news of its oc- 




CATHEDRAL OP ORVIETO. 



currence was immediately carried to the Pope. The Pope, Urban lY., 
happened to be at that time at Orvieto ; and in con^memoration of the 
miracle he introduced the festival of Corpus Christi, and ordered the 
construction of the famous cathedral.' 

17 



258 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

" As we walked through the cathedral we saw several paintings il- 
lustrating the miracle ; some of them are excellent, though all are said 
to be inferior to that of Raphael, which is now in the Vatican at Rome. 
The miracle of Bolsena is said to have occurred in the year 1263, and 
the artists of that period evidently considered it a most worthy subject 
for their work. The frescos in the interior of the church are of the 
finest character, and are nearly all by celebrated artists. They showed 
us a silver shrine weighing four hundred pounds, and other costly 
things, the property of the church. 

" The region around Orvieto for a considerable distance abounds in 
Etruscan remains, and many vases, statues, trinkets, and other things 
have been unearthed in modern days. A good many curiosities were 
offered to us for sale, principally in the form of vases and personal orna- 
ments ; we were cautioned against buying them, as they are nearly all 
of modern make, and some of the factories where they are produced 
are said to be in Orvieto. We asked a guide about them, and offered to 
pay him liberally if he would take us to one of the manufactories of 
antiquities, but he positively declared that he knew nothing about 
them. Of course he is interested in keeping up the deception, as he 
receives a liberal commission upon all purchases made by the strangers 
whom he shows about the place." 

While they were looking at the collection of Etruscan antiquities 
Mrs. Bassett asked who the Etruscans were, where they lived, and how 
long ago it was that they flourished. 

Frank replied that he would answer the question as soon as they 
were again in the railway train and on the way to Rome. According- 
ly it was not many minutes after the departure of the train from Or- 
vieto before the youth was reminded by his mother of the promise he 
had made, whereupon he spoke as follows : 

a Previous to the foundation of Rome nearly the whole of Italy, to- 
gether with some of its western islands, was known by the name of 
Etruria. It was divided into three portions ; the northern part, from 
the Alps to the Apennines, was known as Etruria Circumpadana; the cen- 
tral portion, from the Apennines to the Tiber, was Etruria Propria ; and 
the southern was called Etruria Campaniana. The most interesting of 
these was the middle one, Etruria Propria (proper), which was divided 
into twelve sovereign cities or districts, ruled by sovereigns who were 
practically independent of each other, though bound together in a sort 
of league in which they made common cause against any invader. 

'' After the foundation of Rome the cities of Etruria Proper were 



ETRURIA AND THE ETRUSCANS. 



259 



frequently at war with that city, and sometimes they carried their hos- 
tilities up to the very walls of the Imperial City. The inhabitants of 
Etruria were called Etruscans, and it is a disputed question, never satis- 
factorily settled, as to what nation they belonged. Various origins 
have been ascribed to them. Some authorities think they were of the 
Slavonic race, and came from the north ; another calls them Celts ; 




INTERIOR OP AN ETRUSCAN TOMB. 



another Albanise ; three writers say they were Semitics, and other 
authorities class them as Goths, Scandinavians, Basques, Assyrians, 
Phoenicians, Egyptians, and Armenians." 

"Well, I don't care particularly what they were," said Mrs. Bassett. 
" They never gave me any trouble, and as long as they occupied the 
country and took good care of it, it is of no great consequence where 
they came from or what language they spoke." 

" As a general thing," continued Frank, " they seem to have pre- 
ferred peace to war, and the most of the wars in which they were en- 
gaged were brought about by the attacks made upon them by the 
Romans. It is generally thought that the Etruscan State was founded 



260 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



about one thousand years before the Christian era, though some histo- 
rians say it had a much greater antiquity. Some of their cities were of 
goodly size ; one city (Yeii) is said to have had more than one hundred 
thousand inhabitants, but nearly all of their cities have been destroyed, 
and some of them so completely that few traces of their existence can 
be found. Sometimes single cities were at war with each other, though 
that was rarely the case ; and it is said that on one occasion two cities 
of the league were at war, while the whole league was fighting against 
Kome. Each of these cities sent its contingent of troops, who fought 
side by side in perfect harmony in the struggle against the foreign foe, 
and at the same time the troops at home were seeking every means and 
embracing every opportunity to take each other's lives." 

" What religion did the Etruscans have T Mrs. Bassett asked. 

" That is a difficult question to answer,-' Frank replied, " as we are 
unable to make out very clearly what it was. They have left very few 
written records, and the most of our information comes from inscrip- 




ETRUSCAN SARCOPHAGUS OF TERRA- COTTA. 



tions upon vases, statues, tombs, and other remains that have come 
down to us from this very ancient people. The general belief is that 
their religion was a combination of the symbol service of the Eastern 
nations, the barbarous religious practices of Korthern savages, and the 
Greek ideas of the gods of their day. They divided their gods into 



THE ETRUSCANS AT HOME. 



261 



two classes, one being evil and mischievous, and the other good and 
beneficent. As usual in most pagan nations, they worshipped the evil 
gods more than the good ones, their theory being that if they could 
persuade the evil divinities not to work any mischief upon them, there 
was no special occasion for invoking the aid of the beneficent gods. 

" Some things of the present day," continued Frank, " have come to 
us from the Etruscans. They divided the year into twelve months, and 




ETRUSCAN RELIEF. 



the designation of the days of the months by numerals is also of the 
same origin. Their towns were clean and healthy, as they had a very 
good system of drainage. They made tunnels and canals, changed the 
course of streams, drained swamps, and performed other engin.eering 
work about as well as it is performed at the present day." 

" How were they in their home life, and what was the position of 
their women ?" Mary asked, as Frank paused. 

" Their ideas in that respect," the youth answered, " will, I am sure, 
meet your approval. They are credited with the invention of the atri- 
um, or common sitting - room of the family, where the master of the 
house sat surrounded by his household gods and the figures of his an- 
cestors, while his wife and daughters and handmaidens were busy at 
the loom or distaff. Woman was held in high estimation among the 
Etruscans ; she was not the slave of her husband, but his companion. 
In the pictures representing their festivities we find men and women 



262 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

joining in the games and dancing, and everything indicates th^tt there 
was more equahty between the sexes among the Etruscans than among 
other nations of their time and many of to-day. 

" Their architecture was sohd, and much of it had an ornamental 
character ; there is not much of it remaining at present, but here and 
there may be found the foundations of buildings, and the traces of am- 
phitheatres, walls, gates, temples, and porticos. The greater part of our 
knowledge concerning the Etruscans is obtained from the pictures on 
the walls of their tombs. The tombs were hollowed out in rocks some- 
thing after the manner of the Egyptians ; the inside of a tomb was 
made to resemble as closely as possible the interior of a house with 
all its decorations, furniture, and utensils. Most of these tombs were 
opened and plundered long ago, but enough has remained to be of great 
value in getting at the history of the people. Their statuary has a 
very close resemblance to that of the Egyptians, and this circumstance 
has given rise to the belief among certain Avriters that the Etruscans 
were of Egyptian origin." 

'• Please tell me what articles were found in the Etruscan tombs ; 
I would very much like to know," said Mrs. Bassett, as Frank paused 
for a moment while looking out of the window. 

"Many articles in terra-cotta, or baked clay, were found there. I 
may remark, by -the -way, that the Etruscans were famous for their 
work in clay, and their vases are highly prized. Many articles of 
bronze were found there, and the Etruscans were thought to have 
been the inventors of bronze casting, and certainly they brought it to 
a very high state of perfection. They manufactured great quantities 
of statues and vases of bronze, and exported them to Rome and to 
other parts of the world as it was then known. Candelabra, cups, 
disks, tripods, articles of armor, musical instruments, fans, toilet-boxes, 
and similar things have been found in the tombs, all of them display- 
ing the most exquisite skill in their construction and ornamentation. 
The Etruscans were excellent workers in gems ; they made beautiful 
cuttings on cornelian, sardonyx, and agate, and their lapidary work 
has received the highest praise from lapidaries of the present time. 
Altogether they were a remarkable people, and it is a great pity that 
we cannot learn more of them. They lived a long time before the 
invention of the art of printing, and even before that of writing, was 
in very general use. Specimens of their writing have been found, but 
nobody has yet been able to read it." 

" Thank you, very much," said Mrs. Bassett, as Frank paused and 



THE TIBER AND ITS TRIBUTARIES. 



26^ 



called attention to the Tiber, on whose banks the train was carrying 
them rapidly along towards the Eternal City. 

Mrs. Bassett was disappointed in the size of the river, as she had 
expected to find a much larger stream. She had heard so much of the 
Tiber that she was inclined to regard it as a second Mississippi or St. 
Lawrence, and much larger than the Hudson. 

'' The entire course of the river," said Mary, '' is only a trifle over 
two hundred and fifty miles. It is the chief river of Central Italy, and 
the most famous in the whole peninsula. It takes its rise from two 
springs in a forest of beech-trees in the Apennines ; these springs were 
formerly supposed to be inhabited by divinities, just as all the streams 
and fountains in the world at that time were supposed to be peopled." 

"How far is the Tiber navigable?" Mrs. Bassett asked. 

" It is navigable," said Fred, " for boats of fifty tons and under up 
to its junction with the E"ar Kiver, about one hundred miles from the 
sea, and smaller boats can go up as far as Orvieto. A great deal of 



niiii. ii.mi.i.ij.i.L 




WALL PAINTING FROM ETRURIA. 



produce is brought down from the interior to Rome on the surface of 
the Tiber. There is a boat now," said he, as he pointed to a craft on 
the river, " which is probably laden with wine, charcoal, or garden prod- 
uce, on the way to market in the great city. J^early everybody," he 
continued, " is disappointed at the size of the river, just as you have 




ENTRANCE TO A TOMB. 



been. At Eome the general width of the stream is about three hun- 
dred feet, and the depth from twelve to eighteen feet." 

" I supposed, too, that it was a clear stream, as it comes down from 
the mountains," Mrs. Bassett remarked; "but it isn't at all. It is almost 
as muddy as the Mississippi, or the Missouri." 

"It is supplied by mountain streams that are constantly affected by 
sudden rains, which wash down the earth and discolor the water ; in 
time of floods there is one part of earth to six parts of fluid. When 
several of these tributaries are swollen at the same time it results in an 
overflow of the banks of the Tiber lower down. These inundations 
come very suddenly, and history shows that they were as frequent in 
ancient days as in the years in which we live. The water is discolored, 
just as it was in the days when Yirgil and other poets wrote about it. 
Men and nations have changed, and changed many times, but the Tiber 
remains the same from one century to another." 

Mary remarked that it was possibly in regard to the Tiber that 
some one wrote the lines : 

"'Men may come and men may go, 
But I flow on forever.'" 



Frank evaded a direct answer, but said the Tiber was known to 



TRADITIONS OF THE TIBER. 



265 



have been flowing for a good many centuries, and the probabilities 
were in favor of its flowing for many centuries to come. 

"As far as I can judge," said Mary, " looldng at it from the railway 
train, it appears to be a rapid stream." 

" Yes, it is," Frank answered ; " its current flows at the rate of 
about three miles an hour in the ordinary stage of the water. In time 
of flood its velocity is considerably increased ; it is said to be a danger- 
ous river for swimmers, as it abounds in w^hirlpools and treacherous 
eddies. Ancient history tells us that the floods of the Tiber used to 
bring down large numbers of serpents, so that the inhabitants of the 
lower part of the valley ran the risk of being bitten by poisonous rep- 
tiles in addition to the calamity of the deluge." 

" Has the river changed its course at all since the earliest records 
concerning it ?" Mrs. Bassett asked. 

" There is a difference of opinion on that point," Frank replied, 
" some writers supposing that the bed of the river in the lower part of 
its course has been raised ; but to offset tiiis theory is the fact that the 
positions of the bridges 
of two thousand years 
ago show about the 
same water - level as 
that of to-day." 

The water of the 
Tiber was a favorite 
drink of the Romans 
during the Middle 
Ages, and it was car- 
ried through the city 
in skins of animals, 
and sold to whoever 
wished to buy it. It 
is said that some of 
the popes, notably 
Clement YII. and Paul 

III., were so fond of the water that they took a supply of it with them 
when they travelled. At the present day it is not regarded as a good 
drinking-water, but whether its character has changed at all during the 
more recent centuries I am unable to say. 

"Couldn't we get a boat and float down from here to Rome?" 
queried Mary. "It would be delightful to do so." 




AN ETRUSCAN WALL. 



266 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



" Perhaps we could,'' replied Frank ; " but I don't think it would be 
advisable to try just now. We will continue to Rome by the railway 
train. Perhaps some day we will make arrangements to come by rail 
to one of the stations near the river, and there meet a boat to carry us 
down Avith the current. There are steamboats running between Rome 




THE ISLAND OF THE TIBER, ROME. 



and the mouth of the river, and possibly we will find a steamboat ex- 
cursion sufficiently interesting to pay us for the time and trouble of 
making it. Anyway, it will not be a long one." 

While this dialogue was going on Fred was looking out of the win- 
dow, and suddenly announced that he thought he could see the dome of 
St. Peter's Church. The dialogue concerning the Tiber came to an end 
abruptly, as all w^ere interested in obtaining a glimpse of the Eternal 
City, and impatient to reach it. 

In Rome at last ! Mrs. Bassett was inclined to rub her eyes to 
make sure that she was not dreaming. She said it was hard for her to 
believe that she was really in the famous city, about which she had read 
so much in childhood — the city of the Roman emperors, where the 
Christians were persecuted and thrown to wild beasts in the presence 
of the populace, and the city which abounds in so many monuments 
that tell of its former greatness. Mary, too, felt the same uncertainty 
as to the reality of her presence in Rome, and her uncertainty was 
combined with a flush of excitement which communicated itself to her 
brother and cousin. But these sentimental thoughts of the situation 



FIRST SIGHT OF ROME. 



2GY 



quickly gave way to practical necessities, as they placed themselves and 
their belongings in the hands of the commissionnaire of the hotel where 
they had decided to lodge during their stay in the once Imperial City. 

On their way from the railway station to the hotel Mrs. Bassett 
and Mary were constantly on the lookout, to see if they could make out 
points of historic interest through the knowledge of Rome they had 
already obtained by means of reading and the study of photographs 
and engravings. Of course they had no trouble about the Church of 
St. Peter; its dome is visible from every direction as one approaches 
the city, and there are comparatively few points in Eome whence it 
cannot be seen. Unhappily for the stranger, the route from the rail- 
way station to the quarter where the hotels are situated does not take 
in many of the famous places, and consequently our friends were some- 
what disappointed at the result of the ride. 

Most of the hotels of Rome are situated in what is known as the 
Strangers' Quarter, between the Porta del Popolo and the Piazza di 
Spagna ; and when our friends were settled at one of these establish- 
ments Mrs. Bassett wondered if the Caesars, the Pompeys, and other 




ROMAN SOLDIERS. 



great men of ancient Rome were as well lodged and cared for as are 
the travellers of the present day. Mary suggested that they certainly 
ought to have been, although she doubted very much if the comforts of 
a palace in the time of the Caesars, with all their luxuries, were equal 
to those of a modern hotel of the best sort. 

" I am sure," said Mary, " that Julius Caesar, with all his greatness, 
did not have gas to read by at night, and he could not light his cigar 



268 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

with a match. He did not have a spring-mattress to sleep on, and the 
waiters at dinner were not attired in dress-coats. The Eoman chariot 
was not as comfortable as a modern carriage with steel springs, and I 
don't believe they had in those times sole-leather trunks, with compart- 
ments where bonnets can be kept safe from injury while being jolted 
over the roads or handled at the stations." 

Mary had other comparisons to make between the old and the new, 
but they were cut short by the announcement that dinner was ready. 
One cannot live upon sentiment and ancient history in Rome any more 
than elsewhere, as our friends demonstrated in several very practical 
ways, and they went to the dining-room at once. 

While they were at dinner Mrs. Bassett asked how long it would 
take them to see all that was to be seen in Eome. 

Frank replied that the question was one of the most difficult to 
answer that his mother had asked during their journey. " To see all 
that is to be seen here," said he, " would take a long time. One might 
spend months — yes, years — in Rome, and find something new every day, 
especially if he is more than ordinarily interested in any line of art 
study, or in history, archaeology, or anything peculiarly connected with 
the famous city. But for the ordinary traveller who simply wishes to 
see the ordinary sights, those that are mentioned in the guide-books, 
and form the stock subjects of the conversation of travellers, from one 
to two weeks will suffice." 

" I suppose you mean by that," said Mrs. Bassett, " that one can see 
the churches and palaces, the Colosseum, the Forum, and other things 
that we have read about in books, but only see them superficially." 

'' Yes, that is what I mean," was the reply. " For instance, a party 
visits St. Peter's Church and the Vatican in a single forenoon, and 
probably the great mass of the tourists who come here devote but an 
hour or so to each of those places. To see them with any sort of 
thoroughness one should give a whole day to those places alone, half of 
it to the church, and the other half to the Vatican, and a whole day to 
each of them is little enough, provided one can spare the time." 

" Well, I don't wish to be hurried," Mrs. Bassett responded; "and, on 
the other hand, I don't want the rest of the party to feel that I am 
taking up too much time. I shall leave everything in the hands of 
Frank and Fred, just as I have done before." 

Mary^ indorsed her mother's views, and after dinner the party went 
out for a stroll along the Corso, on which tlieir hotel was situated. 
The Corso is one of the principal streets of Rome, and as they walked 



ALONG THE CORSO. 



269 



along Frank explained that it was anciently the street Avhich connected 
the capitol with the Yia Flaminia. They found the street filled with 
carriages and pedestrians, and Mrs. Bassett was agreeably surprised at 
the attractiveness of the shops with which the Corso is lined. The 
great mass of the people along the sidewalks were dressed in the ordi- 
nary garb of modern days, but here and there were Italians wearing 




ITALIAN CHILDREN AT PLAY. 



picturesque costumes, which were new to the eyes of the strangers. 
Frank explained that some of these people served as models for artists, 
but most of them were peasants from the region around Rome, or peo- 
ple living in the city itself. 

Mary asked if there were any antiquities to be seen along the Corso. 
Frank explained that most of the buildings there — or, at least, those in 
the part of the Corso where they were — were of modern construction ; 
they might be hundreds of years old, but were modern in comparison 
with the edifices belonging to the ancient city. " The Corso," he said, 
" was originally narrower than it is at present ; it was levelled and 
widened by Pope Alexander YIL, in order to afford space for the 
horse-races peculiar to the city." 

" Do they have horse-races on this street ?" said Mrs. Bassett, in a 
tone of surprise as she looked along the Corso. 

" Oh yes," replied Frank ; " horse-races take place here in the time 
of the Carnival, but not the kind of racing that jon have witnessed. I 
will tell you about them later on, when we have seen something more 
of the citVo Just here we will turn aside and visit the Fountain of 



270 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



Trevi. It will be the last thing that you will want to see in Rome, and 
we may as well make it our first point of sight-seeing." 

" Why, how is that ?" Mrs. Bassett exclaimed. 

" There is a tradition," replied Frank, " that every one who wishes 
to return to Rome should come here the evening before his departure, 
throw a coin into the basin of the fountain, and silently or audibly 
express a wish to see the fountain again." 

" Oh yes," said Mary ; " I've heard of that. Some ladies in Paris 
told me that when I came to Rome I must be sure to visit the Fount- 
ain of Trevi the evening before I left ; they had done so, and I prom- 
ised to follow their example. It will certainly be very nice to visit the 
fountain both first and last." 

" This is a very old fountain," said Frank, as they reached the spot. 




AN ITALIAN BOY AND HIS PETS. 



" The tradition is that the spring here was pointed out by a girl to 
a thirsty soldier not long after the founding of the city by Romulus ; 
but whether this is absolutely true or not I have no means of knowing. 



THE FOUNTAIN OF TKEVI. 271 

It is also said that the water from the spring was conducted to the 
baths of Agrippa at the Pantheon before the Christian era. The pres- 
ent form of the fountain is comparatively modern ; that is to say, it was 
made within the last two hundred years," 

The Fountain of Trevi is very tastefully designed, having the figure 
of ]^eptune in the centre, with allegorical figures of " Health " and 
" Fertility " on either side. In front of the group is the large stone 
basin, and this is the place where the pious and superstitious throw 
their coins on the evening before their departure from Rome. Opposite 
to the fountain is a church which would be attractive and interesting 
in any American city, but is of no material consequence in the city 
containing the greatest church in the world. 

After visiting the fountain our friends strolled slowly back to the 
hotel, stopping at one of the cafes in order to see the people that 
assembled there. Mary was inclined to be historical, and, turning to 
Fred, asked if he really believed that Rome was founded in the year 
753 before the Christian era. 

" That is a conundrum I give up at once," said Fred. " How can I 
possibly know in what year the foundation-stones of Rome were laid, 
or whether any such men as Romulus and Remus ever lived ? My 
belief is, though, that in all probability Rome was begun long before 
the year mentioned. There are many traditions to that effect, and in 
portions of the city relics of the flint period have been found, and the 
flint period, you know, was long before the time ascribed to Romulus 
and the foundation of this city. Those who have carefully studied the 
subject believe very strongly that there was some kind of a town or 
city here ages and ages before Romulus came. The people living here 
were grouped around the Palatine, and it is on the Palatine Hill that 
Romulus is said to have founded his city." 

'' Are there any traces to be seen to-day of the real, original Rome 
which Romulus created ?" Mary asked. 

"Yes," said Fred; "modern excavations have brought to light a 
portion of the ancient wall, and there are the remains of a gateway 
and the pavement of a street which belonged to the time of Romulus. 
The year 753 b.c. may not be an exact date, but it is near enough for 
all practical purposes. We will probably see for ourselves the relics of 
the city of Romulus when we make our rounds of sight-seeing." 

Ancient history was set aside at the conclusion of Fred's remark, 
and plans for the next day were taken into consideration. 

" The first thing we will do," said Frank, " is to engage a carriage 



272 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



I^un 



and take a preliminary drive, without stopping to see anything on our 
way. We will go down the Corso to the Piazza di Yenezia; then we 
will drive past the Forum and the Colosseum, and from there to the 
Church of St. John Lateran, and then through several streets that will 
take us past the principal churches, including that of St. Peter, and 

afterwards by the 
Castle of St. Angelo. 
This drive will give 
us an idea of the ex- 
tent of the city, and 
will show us some of 
the things that we 
will afterwards wish 
to see in detail. We 
shall cross the Tiber 
on two of its bridges, 
and you will have a 
good opportunity to 
observe the width 
and character of the 
river as it passes 
through Kome. Per- 
haps we may see one 
of the little steam- 
boats that I men- 
tioned to-day, and as 
we go along the streets we will be able to make comparisons between 
the people of Central Italy and those that we have seen in Venice, 
Florence, and other cities farther to the north." 

The drive was made according to the plan proposed, and every one 
enjoyed it. One thing that forcibly impressed itself upon the minds of 
the strangers was the frequent juxtaposition of the new and the old. 
By the side of ancient palaces, and in some instances in the midst of 
ruins, modern buildings were standing ; and here and there were mod- 
ern buildings in course of construction. Ancient Rome and modern 
Rome were more closely related than our friends had expected to find 
them, and not infrequently the new was mingled with the old. 

A great part of the Rome of to-day is made of the materials taken 
from the older structures, and at one time there was great danger that 
the ancient monuments would entirely disappear through the greed of 




WALLS OF ROME THE OSTIAN GATE. 



SOMETHING ABOUT ANCIENT ROME. 



273 



modern builders. A considerable portion of the Colosseum was thus 
used, and the same may be said of many of the temples, palaces, and 
other buildings. Mrs. Bassett asked how it happened that this was 
done, and wondered that anybody allowed it. 

"As to that," replied Frank, "you must bear in mind that the 
builders of ancient Rome were heathens — at least, we must so regard 
them ; and they showed their heathenism by building temples to the 
heathen gods. After the power of Rome declined the capital of the 
world was transferred from this city to Constantinople. Eo new works 
were undertaken, and everything that existed was allowed to decay. In 
the year 330 of our era Rome is said to have possessed 37 gates, 19 
aqueducts, and 3 bridges across the Tiber. From the gates of the city 
28 high-roads diverged. Within the walls there were 423 streets, 1800 
palaces, and 46,000 dwelling-houses ; and there were 423 temples, 36 tri- 
umphal arches, and 1300 fountains. Perhaps these figures do not give 




EMPEROR JUSTINIAN. — [From a mosaic] 



you a very clear idea of the greatness of the city, but I think you will 
not fail to understand that it was certainly very extensive and mao-- 
nificent before its decline began." 

" Yes, I understand," Mrs. Bassett replied ; " and how did it happen 
that so much was allowed to go to ruin ?" 

" With the decline of Rome," said Frank, " as the capital of the Em- 
pire, the population fell off. The city was attacked by enemies, capt- 
ured again and again, and reduced almost to a place of desolation. In 
the days of its glory Rome is said to have had a population of not far 

18 



274 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



from two millions, though this figure may be 
somewhat exaggerated. At one time during its 
decline it had less than twenty thousand inhabi- 
tants, and some authorities say its population 
was even less than ten thousand. The intro- 
duction of Christianity was unfavorable to the 
preservation of heathen temples and statues. 
No one can blame the early Christians for de- 
stroying the temples and other works of heath- 
enism. They suffered terrible persecution in the 
first three centuries of our era, and when they 
obtained power it is not to be wondered at that 
they wished to efface all traces of the former 
heathenism. The early bishops of Kome used 
the materials of the ancient temples for the con- 
struction of churches, and this plan was very 
generally followed for a long time. The work 
of destruction was going on in Rome for more 
than a thousand years. Just think of it ! There 
is an old proverb which says, 'Rome was not 
built in a day,' and we might add that it was 
not destroyed in a day. When you realize that 
for so long a time there was no attempt to pre- 
serve anything, you will be likely to wonder 
that there is as much remaining of the ancient 
city as we now find here." 

" If that is the case," said Mrs. Bassett, " I 
certainly am surprised. It is a marvel they 
didn't tear down the whole of the Colosseum, and 
the Forum, and all the other buildings that the 
heathen Romans left. It's fortunate that the Ro- 
mans builded as solidly as they did. I don't be- 
lieve there's a city in America that wouldn't 
have disappeared completely if it had been allowed to go to de- 
struction for a thousand years." 



« 



m 



Ui^w^^i:^ 



i— i! 



ANCIENT ROMAN MONUMENT. 



CHAPTEE Xy. 

THE COLOSSEUM ; ORIGIN OF ITS NAME ; DATE OF ITS CONSTRUCTION ; CELEBRA- 
TION OF ITS COMPLETION.— SLAUGHTER OF MEN AND BEASTS.— MEASUREMENTS 
OF THE GREAT STRUCTURE.— THE PODIUM AND ITS USES.— ACCOMMODATIONS 
FOR SPECTATORS.— ARRANGEMENT OF SEATS AND ENTRANCES.— AWNINGS FOR 
SHELTER AGAINST SUN AND RAIN.— THE ARENA.— GLADIATORIAL COMBATS, 
CONTESTS WITH WILD BEASTS, SEA-FIGHTS, ETC.— CONSECRATION OF THE COL- 
OSSEUM BY POPE BENEDICT XIV.— MRS. BASSETT'S QUESTION ABOUT GLADIA- 
TORS ; WHO AND WHAT THE GLADIATORS WERE ; ORIGIN OF THEIR NAME.— 
HUMAN SACRIFICES AT FUNERALS; HOW THEY BECAME POPULAR AMUSEMENTS. 
—FIRST GLADIATORIAL FIGHTS AT ROME ; ABOLITION OF THE CUSTOM.— ARCH 
OF CONSTANTINE AND ITS HISTORY.— TRAJAN'S ARCH.— ARCH OF TITUS.— THE 
CAPITOL AND FORUM. —TARPEI AN ROCK.— EXCAVATIONS IN THE FORUM. 



THE party returned to the ho- 
tel in time for luncheon, and 
when that repast was finished they 
were ready to see in detail what 
they had just looked at in general. 
Mrs. Bassett thought she would 
prefer to visit the Colosseum before 
going anywhere else, and accord- 
ingly the way was taken in the 
direction of that famous ruin. 

The question arose as to the 
origin of the name of the great 
amphitheatre, to which Frank 
made the following answer : 

" ' Coliseum,' as Webster gives it, is often written ^ Colosseum ;' and 
perhaps that is the more appropriate way of spelling the word. Near 
the side of this structure there formerly stood a colossal statue of E'ero in 
the character of the ' God of the Sun.' It Vv^as of bronze, thickly gilded, 
and one hundred and seventeen feet in height. It was executed during 
Nero's time by order of the Emperor himself, and was made by the 
sculptor Zenodorus. There was a magnificent palace not far from here 




THE ARCH OF CONSTANTINE. 




PLAN OF THE COLOSSEUM- 



belonging to the same Emperor, but after bis death the building decayed 
and the statue was removed. The gardens of the palace contained an 
artificial lake, and in the spot where this lake stood Yespasian founded 
the amphitheatre. It Avas completed by Titus in the year 80, and was 
subsequently named after the colossal statue of Nero. ' CoHseum ' is 
the customary spelhng, but you see that ' Colosseum ' is perhaps more 
descriptive, and so we will adhere to it." 



A ROMAN CELEBRATION. 



277 



" Yes," said Mrs. Bassett ; " it is certainly a colossal structure, and 
those who built it must have been very proud of their work. Didn't 
they celebrate its completion, just as we are accustomed to celebrate 
the completion of a grand building nowadays?" 

" Certainly, they did," was the reply. " The completion of the Col- 
osseum was celebrated by gladiatorial combats, men fighting with each 




1 1. 1 1 1 ^ 



SECTION OF THE AUDITORIUM OF THE COLOSSEUM. 



JoMek 



other or with wild beasts ; and these contests lasted for a hundred days. 
Five thousand wild animals were killed during this celebration, and I 
don't know how many men. They had naval battles in the Colosseum 
at that time as well as gladiatorial fights. When we reach the place I 
will tell you more about the affair and how it was managed." 

When they arrived in front of the Colosseum the party left the car- 
riage and took an outside survey of the immense structure. They 
walked around it; and the walk was no small matter, as the external 
circumference of this immense mass of stone measures more than one- 
third of a mile. It is not round but elliptical in shape, its long diameter 



278 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

being six hundred and fifty-eight feet, and the shorter five hundred and 
fifty-eight feet. The height of it at the loftiest point is two hundred 
and fifty feet according to careful measurement. 

" How many spectators could assemble in the Colosseum at once ?" 
Mrs. Bassett asked, as she looked around. 

" Eighty thousand could be accommodated with seats," was the re- 
ply, "and from ten to twenty thousand more could have what the 
theatres in New York call ' standing room only.' " 

" I suppose it was filled to its utmost capacity during the hundred 
•days of the celebration of its completion." 

" Undoubtedly it was," said Frank, " as Eome had a great population 
then, somewhere between one and two millions. It is probable that 
business was very generally suspended at that time, and there was no 
difiiculty in filling the seats. Whether the audience went there by 
special invitation of the Emperor, or whether they paid for their seats, I 
am not sure. Probably the performances were so arranged that all the 
inhabitants of the city could have an opportunity, on one day or an- 
other, to be present at the show and enjoy the sport." 

After their walk around the Colosseum was completed the party went 
inside. Fred was appointed historian of the day, and we will listen as 
he reads from his journal and tells about what they saw : 
' " This is probably the largest theatre in the world ; though it has 
been considerably injured, enough of it remains to give us a perfect idea 
of what it must have been in the days of the Roman emperors. It is 
constructed of blocks of stone, although a considerable quantity of brick 
was used in the interior. The stone blocks were originally held to- 
gether by iron clamps, and the guide called our attention to holes that 
were cut in the stones during the Middle Ages, in order to obtain the 
iron, which was then very valuable. The seats rise from the edge of 
the arena tier upon tier, one row above another. Most of the tiers of 
seats have been taken away, and there are just enough of them remain- 
ing to show their original character. They were so designed that the 
place could be quickly filled, and at the end of a performance it did not 
require a long time for the audience to get away. The passageways 
lead to arches beneath the seats, and there was a sufficient number of 
these passages to enable the audience to scatter in all directions. 

" The best-preserved portion of the Colosseum is on the north-east 
side, and is four stories in height. The first three stories are formed by 
arcades, and a wall with windows makes the fourth story. It is supposed 
that statues were placed in the arcades of the second and third stories, 



CONSTRUCTION OF THE COLOSSEUM. 



279 



although none are there at present. There are ancient Koman coins in 
existence with pictures of the Colosseum, and these pictures show statues 
in the arches I have mentioned. Every fourth arch, as you go around 
the building, contains a staircase, and besides these staircases there were 
four main entrances, which are at the extremities of lines drawn through 
the length and breadth of the building. One of these entrances was for 
the Emperor ; the others were for the grand procession previous to the 
games, and for bringing in the animals and the machinery. Evidently 




THE COLOSSEUM, FROM THE PALATINE HILL. 



the places were numbered, and the tickets were marked with the arcade 
through which the holders were to enter. There were eighty of these 
arcades, and the numbers, from XXIII. to LIY., are still here. With the 
arcades thus numbered ticket-holders could get to their places without 
difficulty or the least confusion. 

" The guide showed us the place where the Emperor sat, and it is 
hardly necessary to say that he had the best position in the house. His 
seat was called the Pulvinar^ and this, together with the seats for the 



280 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

Senators and other high dignitaries, were all enclosed in what they called 
the Podium. Above the podium were three other classes of seats. The 
gallery of the Colosseum, was like that of the modern theatre in one re- 
spect, at least. It was the cheapest place in the house, and was occupied 
by the portion of the public that may be called ' The Lower Ten Thou- 
sand.' Xo doubt it was well patronized. 

'' They had the necessary apparatus for spreading an awning over 
the entire place to keep out the rays of the sun in hot days, and also to 
exclude the wet on rainy ones. Exactly how this was arranged nobody 
knows, and there has been a great deal of controversy on the subject 
among modern engineers. We climbed to the top of the colonnade at 
the place where it was last broken, and had a splendid view, not only of 
the interior of the structure, but a considerable portion of Eome. The 
Colosseum is visible from a good many points, and consequently when 
you are on the top of the ruin you can see those points in return. 

" It seemed hardly possible that an awning could be made to stretch 
over this entire area ; but we were assured that such was the case, and, 
furthermore we could see the holes in the stones where the masts were 
placed for attaching the ropes that held the awning. It is no easy 
climb to make, as the staircase that leads to the top of the Colosseum is 
decidedly steep. We didn't go all the way up in a single staircase ; we 
ascended to the first story, and then walked around till we came to an- 
other stairway which took us to the third story. On this story we 
walked around for a while and then ascended to the top. 

" We spent some time on and around the walls and seats of the Col- 
osseum, and then descended to the arena. 'Arena' is the Latin word for 
sand, and the level space in the middle of the amphitheatre was called 
the arena because it was covered with sand during the gladiatorial com- 
bats, the races, and similar games. They had an arrangement whereby 
the whole space of the arena could be flooded to the depth of several 
feet, and thus give an opportunity for boat-races and naval combats. 
But this was not all ; sometimes the arena was filled with a forest, trees 
being brought from the neighboring hills and set out in the ground, 
which had been carefully covered with heavy turf. Under these trees 
ostriches, stags, deer, wild beasts, lions, leopards, bears, and other wild 
animals were let loose, and then hunting scenes took place, sometimes 
resulting in the actual killing of the beasts in the forests, and in others 
simply making a pretence of pursuing them, and allowing them to escape 
in the dens beneath the rows of seats. 

" We wanted to go under the amphitheatre and see the chambers, or 




THE ARCH OP TITUS. 



dens, where the wild beasts were kept, but learned that these places have 
been filled up and are not now on exhibition. The cost of supplying 
the Colosseum with the beasts that were slaughtered here must have 
been enormous. Lions, tigers, leopards, elephants, and all the other 
wild animals of the then known world were made to contribute to the 
amusement of the Eomans. Only about one-third of the Colosseum re- 
mains at present ; but there is enough to give a magnificent eifect and 
show what it was originally. For hundreds of years the Colosseum was 



282 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

used as a quarry; from its materials entire palaces were constructed, 
and scores upon scores of smaller buildings. At one time it was used 
as a private castle, and has also been occupied as a hospital and as a salt- 
petre manufactory, and I don't know what else. 

" Little attention was given to the preservation of the Colosseum until 
1740, when Pope Benedict XIY. consecrated it, on account of the fre- 
quency with which the blood of martyrs had flowed there. Several 
chapels were erected in the interior of the Colosseum, and in these chap- 
els sermons are still preached at stated intervals. There was danger that 
the ruins would fall, and two of the popes caused huge buttresses to be 
erected for their preservation. The portion of the structure that re- 
mains is so large that its value as building material is said to exceed 
two million dollars. It has often been remarked that the Colosseum is 
the symbol of the greatness of Kome. As far back as the eighth cen- 
tury it is said that the pilgrims Avho visited Eome used to exclaim : 

"'While stands the Colosseum, Rome shall stand; 
When falls the Colosseum, Rome shall fall ; 
And when Rome falls — the world.'" 

While our friends were seated on one of the rows of steps, Mrs. Bas- 
sett said she would like to know something about the gladiatorial com- 
bats in the Colosseum ; in fact, she was not sure that she knew exactly 
what a gladiator was, but thought he was a warrior. 

"I will explain that," said Frank. "A gladiator was a man who 
fought in the Colosseum here, and in the amphitheatres of other cities, 
to amuse the public. He fought with a short sword, which was called 
gladius, and from gladius came his name of gladiatory 

" Do you mean that they fought to kill each other ?" queried Mrs. 
Bassett, in a tone of astonishment. 

'' Certainly," was the reply ; " usually, when two gladiators fought, 
one of them was killed, though that was not always the case when one 
man was vanquished by another. The victor generally appealed to the 
audience to decide whether he should spare his victim or slay him, the 
decision being left to the Emperor, the Senators, and other distinguished 
individuals seated in the podium. These spectators indicated their de- 
cision by holding the thumbs of their right hands either upward or 
downward. If the thumb was held upward, it indicated that the life of 
the vanquished man should be spared ; if downward, he was to be slain." 

" What was the decision usually, as far as you know from history ?" 



AN ANCIENT MEMORIAL. 



283 



" To the discredit of human nature, it must be said that it was gen- 
erally unfavorable ; and, furthermore, I must say, to the discredit of the 
gentler sex, they usually voted that the life of the vanquished man 
should be taken. The women of ancient Kome were quite as blood- 




ARCH OF TITUS — TRIUMPHAL CAR AND PROCESSION. 



284 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

thirsty and cruel as the men ; there were exceptional cases, but this 
must be set down as the general rule." 

" Who were the gladiators ?" Mary asked ; " that is, what kind of 
men were they ? Were they soldiers, or citizens, or prisoners of war ?" 

" Usually they were slaves," replied Frank, " bought and trained for 
fighting by men who made it their business to purchase and train 
gladiators, and then sell them to the Emperor, or to his master of cere- 
monies at the amphitheatre. The custom is supposed to have come 
from Asia, and to have originated in the practice of human sacrifices, or 
that of taking the lives of captives or prisoners of war. The Egyptians 
and other people who flourished long before the time of the Romans 
usually slaughtered their captives in war, and when they did not slaugh- 
ter them, they converted them into slaves. This custom has not alto- 
gether become extinct among savage people ; it is practised to this very 
day in Africa, and until quite recently it was the custom of the American 
Indians to torture their prisoners to death. 

" Gladiatorial combats were introduced at Rome at the funerals of 
great personages, this practice being in accordance with the Eastern cus- 
tom of human sacrifices on the occasion of the death of a ruler. The 
Romans improved on these sacrifices by making the prisoners kill each 
other ; as the prisoners or slaves were specially kept for this purpose, 
they were trained to fight with skill and courage, in order to make the 
spectacle as impressive as possible. 

" From being a funeral rite, these gladiatorial fights were not long 
in becoming a spectacle for popular amusement ; they were at first given 
in the open air, where hollows between two hills afforded an opportu- 
nity for large numbers of people to witness the performance. As the 
number of these natural amphitheatres was limited, especially within the 
walls of a city, it became necessary to erect artificial amphitheatres, and 
out of this necessity came the Colosseum and the amphitheatres which 
belonged to Roman cities generally." 

'' Can you tell me," said Mary, " when they had their first gladiato- 
rial combats at Rome, or any other Italian city ?" 

" I cannot tell exactly," replied Frank ; " but the first one that we 
read about in Roman history was a show of three pairs of gladiators 
given at a funeral in the year 490 after the founding of Rome. Fifty 
years later there was a show of twenty -two pairs of gladiators in the 
Forum. From that time on the practice increased rapidly ; magistrates, 
public officers of various kinds, and candidates for election gave shows 
of this kind to the people, and it became the custom for the victor in 



ill i" ir^'-'^t^^ 




TEMPLE OP VESPASIAN. 



each pair of gladiators to kill his opponent. The fight was generally to 
the death, and the victor was rewarded sometimes with a branch ot 
palm, or some other token, and sometimes with his freedom. 

" The Koman emperors surpassed everj^body else in the extent and 
grandeur of these spectacles. Julius Csesar gave a show of three hun- 



286 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



dred and twenty couples of gladiators, and you already know about the 
dedication of the Colosseum, Avhen Titus gave a performance of gladia- 
tors, wild beasts, and sea-fights for one hundred days. Trajan gave a 
show of one hundred and twenty-three days, in which twelve hundred 
men fought with and killed each other, or fought with wild beasts, for 
the amusement of the populace who were invited." 

" They must have required a great number of slaves at Rome to 
maintain these shows and furnish material for fighting." 

" Yes," said Frank ; " at some times the number was so great that it 
was feared they might enter into a conspiracy for the capture of the 
city. More than once schemes were formed by discontented men for 
overthrowing the rulers then in power, and in all those schemes the 
slaves were generally included. There was so much fear of trouble 
from this source that efforts were made to limit the number of gladia- 
tors and diminish the frequency of the shows. Cicero proposed a law 
to forbid any man giving a gladiatorial show for two years before be- 
coming a candidate for office, and the 
Emperor Augustus prohibited more 
than two shows in a year. The law 
was evaded to a considerable extent 
by private individuals, who used to 
have gladiatorial fights at banquets 
and other entertainments, just as in 
modern times singers or elocution- 
ists are called in to entertain dinner 
and reception parties. 

" I said that the gladiators were 
prisoners or slaves. This was true 
for a time ; but in the later history of 
the business freemen often trained 
themselves for the profession, and 
adopted it just as one might adopt 
These men have their imitators in modern 
times in the men who fight in the prize-ring. It is true our modern 
combatants do not use the sword, or any other weapons except their 
fists, but it occasionally happens that these natural means of fighting 
prove fatal in the prize-ring. Not only freemen, but even knights 
and women fought in the gladiatorial combats before they w^ere 
abolished by the Emperor Constantine in the year 325. Constantine 
abolished them by law ; but they did not by any means cease until a 




SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS, 



any other occupation. 



THE AKCH OF CONSTANTINE. 



287 



considerable time afterwards, as it was not until the year 500 that they 
were comj^letely brought to an end and out of fashion." 

From the Colosseum our friends went to view the Triumphal Arch of 
Constantine, which is not far away, and is the best preserved of the 
triumphal arches of Rome. It was erected after the victory over Max- 
entius in 311, when Constantine declared himself in favor of Christianity. 

"It is a very handsome arch," 
wrote Mary in her note-book, " and 
is adorned with some very interest- 
ing sculptures ; the guide said that 
these sculptures were brought from 
the Triumphal Arch of Trajan, that 
stood at the entrance to Trajan's 
Forum. I asked why they were 
taken away and brought here; the 
guide answered that the skill of the 
sculptors at the time of Constantine 
was not equal to that of Trajan's 
time, and so these sculptures w^ere 
appropriated by the builders of the 
more modern arch. S6me of the 
figures on the sculptures were so 
badly defaced during the time of 
the decline and destruction of 
Rome that it has been necessary to 
restore them. Several were entirely 
destroyed, while others were de- 
prived of their hands and heads. 

"The sculptures are interesting 
from the amount of history con- 
tained in them. One shows Tra- 
jan's entrance into Rome ; another 
represents him condemning bar- 
barians; another commemorates 
the foundation of schools where 
poor children w^ere educated ; and 
in another sculpture Trajan is 
crowning a Parthian king. Then 
there are reliefs and medallions 
representing sacrifices and hunting 




COLUMNS OF TEMPLE IN THE ROMAN FORUM. 



288 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

scenes, together with battles and other incidents in the life of the hero. 
Between the medallions there are reliefs which represent the triumphs 
of Constantine, in whose honor the arch was erected. They told us 
that at one time the arch was surrounded by ruins, so that only the 
upper part was visible, but in the early part of this century a consider- 
able amount of money was expended in removing the rubbish, and 
lowering the ground to its original level. 

" The Arch of Titus, from which the sculptures were taken," Mary 
continued, in her narrative, " must not be confounded with the tri- 
umphal arch of the same Emperor, which was erected in commemora- 
tion of his victory over the Jews, and dedicated to him by his successor, 
Domitian, in the year 81. That is a very handsome arch, and we went 
to see it after we had looked at the Arch of Constantine. It must be 
an unpleasant spectacle for the Jews, as the reliefs upon the arch com- 
memorate the destruction of their city. One of the finest of the reliefs 
shows the Emperor with a triumphal procession which contains captive 
Jews, and in another sculpture he is represented as crowned by Victory 
in a chariot driven by Koma. During the Middle Ages this arch was 
converted into a small fortress and strengthened by new walls ; when 
they were removed there was danger that the arch would fall, and its 
reconstruction became necessary. I learned this partly from an inscrip- 
tion on the side of the arch, and partly from what the guide told me." 

From the arch which Mary has just described our friends went to 
the capitol, which was the central and principal part of ancient Eome. 
It is 160 feet above the sea-level, and stands on one of the hills which 
gave to Kome the name of Seven -hilled City. Few of the ancient 
buildings which formerly covered the capitol are now standing, though 
some of their remains are preserved where the Senatorial palace rises. 
This building was known as the Tabularium, and was erected in the 
sixth century before the Christian era, for the reception of state docu- 
ments. It consisted of a series of vaults that are now considerably 
broken down, and part of it is in the form of an open hall, which was 
for a long time used as a storehouse for salt. From this building there 
is an old staircase which descended from the hill of the capitol to the 
Forum, but there is not much of the staircase remaining. 

Mrs. Bassett wished to see the famous Tarpeian Rock, whence, 
according to history, traitors were thrown and killed. At Frank's 
suggestion the guide led the way to the rock, which was a disappoint- 
ment to our friends, as it is to nearly every one who sees it at the pres- 
ent time. What the height of the Tarpeian Rock was in the days of 



VISITING THE FORUM. 



289 



ancient Rome, we are unable to say ; but at present one might jump 
from the top to its base with no very great danger to his hfe. It is 
probable that here as elsewhere a great amount of rubbish has accumu- 




TARPEIAN ROCK. 



lated, and what was once a considerable height is now a very moderate 
one. Some authorities think that the spot which is now pointed out is 
not the Tarpeian Rock of ancient times, though the general impression 
of the majority confirms its identity. 

" From the capitol," said Fred, " we descended to the Forum, hav- 
ing first taken a good survey of it from the heights above. Portions of 
the Forum have been excavated, and the rest is still covered, with rub- 
bish. Originally the Forum is said to have been about 750 feet in 

19 



290 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

length by a little more than 300 in width. It was the great meeting- 
place of the city, the focus or centre of political life, and it has its coun- 
terpart to-day in the central public square of towns and cities through- 
out the civilized world. It was the place for popular assemblages, for 
commercial transactions — in fact, for nearly everything connected with 
the life of the great city. Lawyers seeking clients, doctors desiring 
patients, merchants wishing for business, all assembled at the Forum, 
and wandered up and down or stood silently here and there until their 
opportunities came, if they came at all. 

"The Forum was the origin of modern stump - speaking, and the 
name of rostrum, which is given to the platform Avhence an orator ex- 
cites or instructs an audience, comes from this place. Wooden plat- 
forms were constructed in different parts of the Forum where the speak- 
ers held forth. Judicial trials of various kinds took place here, and it 
was on this very spot that Cicero delivered the orations which have 
been the wonder of all ages and the perplexity and annoyance of many 
a school-boy. The Forum is the place where Csesar fell, where Brutus 
delivered his famous oration, and where, according to tradition, the earth 
opened as a token of the anger of the gods, and refused to close until it 
received a sacrifice. Into the chasm, so history tells us, rode the warrior 
Curtius ready armed for battle, and as he disappeared in the depth the 
vengeance of the gods was satisfied and the earth closed above him. 

" In some plac3S the rubbish that has accumulated over the Forum 
is fifteen or twenty feet in depth, and in order to reach the pavement 
much digging has been necessary. Every new excavation brings to 
light treasures that have been hidden for many centuries. The greater 
part of the Forum has been uncovered, but there is yet much to be 
brought to light in that locahty."^" 

" The space immediately surrounding the Forum was naturally se- 
lected by the Roman emperors for the construction of temples and tri- 
umphal arches, some of which have entirely disappeared, while portions 
of others remain to-day. The first of these to which our attention was 



* In Rome the eighty-two miles of new streets made last year yielded the following- 
"dug-ups •" 905 amphorae, 2360 terra-cotta lamps, 1824 inscriptions on marble, 77 columns- 
of rare marble, 313 pieces of columns, 157 marble capitals, 118 bases, 590 works of art in 
terra-cotta, 540 works of art in bronze, 711 intaglios and cameos, 18 marble sarcophagi, 
152 bass-reliefs, 192 marble statues, 21 marble figures of animals, 266 busts and heads, 54 
pictures in polychrome mosaic, 47 objects of gold, 39 objects of silver, 36.679 coins. Even 
this astonishing list does not cover everything, but embraces only those objects which were 
W'orthy of a place in the museums. 



INTERESTING RUINS. 



291 



called was the Temple of Saturn, of which eight granite columns are 
still standing on a basement sixteen feet high. This temple is said to 
have been erected in the fifth century before our era, and is one of the 
oldest of the edifices in this vicinity. E'ear it the Colonnade of the 
Twelve Gods was pointed out to us, and then the Temple of Yespasian, 
the Temple of Concordia, and just beyond the latter the Triumphal 
Arch of Septimius Severus. History tells us that this arch was erected 
in honor of that emperor by his two sons, Caracalla and Geta; but 
Caracalla afterwards murdered his brother, and removed his name from 
the arch." 




ARCH OF SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS. 



CHAPTER XYI. 

VISIT TO THE GHETTO, THE JEWS' QUARTER, AND HOW IT ORIGINATED.— PER- 
SECUTIONS OF THE JEWS IN ANCIENT AND MODERN TIMES; CRUEL EDICTS 
AGAINST THEM.— DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM BY TITUS; HOW THE JEWS OF 
ROME WERE COMPELLED TO CELEBRATE IT. —SIGHTS AND SCENES IN THE 
GHETTO.— ST. PETER'S CHURCH; ITS EXTENT, AND COMPARISON WITH OTHER 
GREAT CHURCHES.— BAPTISMAL FONT, CANOPY, MOSAICS, MONUMENTS, ETC.— 
STATUES ON THE ROOF, AND A STORY ABOUT THEM.— AN ART COMPETITION.— 
A BOY'S READY WIT AND ITS RESULT.— THE VATICAN AND ITS TREASURES. 
— SISTINE CHAPEL.— "THE LAST JUDGMENT."— RAPHAEL'S LOGGIE.— FAMOUS 
PAINTINGS IN THE PICTURE-GALLERY.— COLLECTION OF STATUES.— FAMOUS 
SCULPTURES.— ROMAN ANTIQUITIES.— KITCHEN UTENSILS, AND OTHER THINGS. 
—HOW THE OLD ROMANS LIVED. —THE PANTHEON. —TRAJAN'S COLUMN.— 
AN AMBITIOUS AMERICAN. 



" \1I[7E grew weary of walking among the ruins of ancient Eome," 
' ^ continued Fred, " and so Frank proposed tiiat we take a drive. 

The rest of us assented to the suggestion, and Mrs. Bassett said she 

would like to visit the Ghet- 
to, the portion of the city 
which was allotted to the 
Jews a long time ago, and 
where they still live. 

"Accordingly we drove 
there, but did not remain 
long. The Ghetto is on the 
banks of the Tiber, and con- 
sists of several streets which 
are parallel with the river 
and connected by narrow 
lanes. The population con- 
sists entirely of Hebrews, 
and it is evident to the most 
casual observer that they 
ROMAN COIN WITH HEAD OF JANUS. arc as iudustnous here as in 




THE JEWS IN ROME. 



293 



any other part of the world. Some of the children followed the custom 
of other Italian children by begging for small coins, but we have be- 
come so used to this everywhere we go in this country that we would 
be very much surprised to find ourselves free from the annoyance for 
any material length of time while going about the streets. 

" The history of the Hebrews in Eome is a history of oppression. 
The forefathers of the people that we see here to-day were brought to 



ROMA 




MAP OF ANCIENT ROJklE. 



Rome as slaves by Pompey fifty years before the Christian era. In 
addition to being compelled to perform the most laborious tasks, they 
were persecuted and loaded with indignities solely because they were 
slaves and of an alien race. Julius Caesar relieved their burdens some- 
what, and at his death there was general lamentation among the Jews 
in Rome at the loss of one whom they deemed their friend, and through 
fear of what might follow. The Emperor Augustus increased their lib- 
erty somewhat, and assigned them a quarter in Trastevere, on the other 



294 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



side of the Tiber ; but their happiness did not long continue, as the cru- 
elties towards them were renewed during the reign of Tiberias. 

" They were persecuted still more by I^ero, and from his time to 
that of Vespasian ; not only were they subject to indignities and persecu- 
tion, and forced to perform the severest tasks, but they were thrown into 
the arena to be devoured by wild beasts, just as a mouse might be tosse.d 
to a cat. They were not trained as gladiators, and thus enabled to fight 
for their lives, but were used to add to the interest of the spectacle 
without being permitted to defend themselves. Domitian banished 
them altogether from Eome, and they were compelled to wander about 

the country begging 
'or stealing for sub- 
sistence, or adopting 
trades which nobody 
else wished to fol- 
low." 

"That was the 
way they were 
treated under the 
pagan emperors," 
Mrs. Bassett said. 
" When Eome be- 
came a Christian 
city I presume the 
troubles of the Jews 
were ended." 
" Not at all," continued Fred ; " they gained a little more freedom 
during the twelfth centur}^, and this continued for some time ; but in 
the year 1556 all the privileges they had enjoyed were taken away, and 
they were confined within the limits of the present Ghetto by order of 
the Pope, Paul lY., the same one who established the censorship and 
inquisition at Eome. He commanded that every Jew should wear a 
badge — the men yellow hats and the women yellow veils. For two cen- 
turies these Hebrew victims of intolerance were confined to the Hmits 
of the Ghetto, and subjected to all sorts of restrictions and oppressions. 
The occupations in which they might engage were very few, and they 
were driven into downright dishonesty in order to support themselves. 

" Every Sunday they were required to listen to a sermon against 
their religion. Under Gregory VI. they were compelled to decorate 
the road leading to the Colosseum, and also to decorate the Triumphal 




SLAB FROM ARCH OF TITUS, SHOWING SPOILS FROM JERUSALEM. 




A JEWISH RABBI. — [Rembrandt.] 

Arch of Titus, which commemorated their defeat and the destruction of 
Jerusalem. Under another pope they were required to run races ahnost 
naked, and with ropes about their necks, at the time of the Carnival, 
amid the hootings and other insults of the populace. The gates of their 
quarter of the city were locked at a certain time of the night ; unless 
they were within the gates at the time they were compelled to stay 
outside, and were punished for not being at home. Down to what we 



296 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

may call our day the persecutions continued, and it was only in the 
year 1846 that the walls of the Ghetto were torn down and the old 
harshness towards the Hebrews ceased.""^ 

" Four or ^ve thousand people live in the Ghetto at the present 
time," said Fred. " The number varies somewhat with the season of 
the year, owing to the habits of some of the Hebrews, who go about 
the country for purposes of trade." 

Mrs. Bassett observed that nearly every one except the children 
seemed to be occupied with something, and in many places even the 
children were at work. Women were sewing in the shops, and men 
were offering goods of various kinds for sale. There are large dealings 
in the Ghetto in cloths and jewelry, tapestries, paintings, and similar 
treasures, and there is no doubt that the Ghetto contains a great deal of 
wealth. Of course there were shops for the sale of cast-off clothing, and 
most of them seemed to be doing a good business. The streets of the 
Ghetto are not the cleanest in the world — in fact, they are decidedly 
dirty and unwholesome in appearance ; but it is a curious circumstance 
that there is less disease there than in most other parts of Kome. 
Fevers, cholera, and maladies of a similar nature are said to be far less 
dangerous in this part of the Imperial City than anywhere else. 

Everywhere our friends went in the Ghetto they were treated with 
civility. Mrs. Bassett remarked that the inhabitants would be justified 
in stoning any stranger that ventures there, in view of the persecutions 
of the Jews during the last eighteen centuries. 

We will not attempt to tell in detail the story of what our friends 
saw during their stay in Rome. After visiting the principal sights of 
the city in the order in which they are usually seen by tourists, they de- 
cided to follow their own plans, which Frank said were very nearly no 
plans at all. In other words, they decided at the end of one day what 
they would do on the next, with the understanding that the scheme 
would be an elastic one and liable to change at any moment. If they 
found that the time allotted to examining any temple, church, ruin, 
palace, or other place of interest was too short, they remained as long 
as they liked, and whatever was left unseen at the end of the day be- 
came part of the programme of the next. 



* Since the visit of our friends to Rome, the Ghetto has been entirely demolished and 
its inhabitants scattered. New buildings and an open square now occupy the site of the 
old quarter of Rome, to which the Jews were restricted, and few, if any, of the ancient 
landmarks of the Ghetto arc visible to-day. 



VISIT TO ST. PETER'S. 



297 



Of course they went to St. Peter's Church ; in fact, they did so on 
the day after seeing the Colosseum, the Forum, and other objects of 
interest already mentioned. Hardly a day passed during their stay in 
the city that they did not manage to spend a short while in or near the 
great church, and before the time of their departure arrived they felt 



h.. 



A 



ill 




CHURCH OF ST. CECILIA LN ROME. 



that they were thoroughly familiar with it, and not likely soon to forget 
its greatness and its magnificence. Mary endeavored to put on paper 
a description of the church, which we are permitted to copy : 

'' There may be finer churches in the world," said the girl ; " but 
certainly we have never seen them, and for one I never realized that 
there was so grand a church anywhere as this. It is great in every 
way : it is great when you look at it from the outside, and it is equally 
great when you are in the interior ; and everything is in harmonious 
proportion. For instance, inside the church at one point is a basin for 
holy-water ; it is carved in marble and fastened against one of the 
pillars supporting the roof, and appears to be upheld by two cherubs. 



298 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

" We were standing perhaps a hundred feet away when Frank called 
my attention to the basin, and asked me how large I thought the 
cherubs were. They looked small, and I told him they might be fifteen 
or eighteen inches high. He smiled, and asked me to go with him. 

" We went together to the front of the basin, and what do you sup- 
pose we discovered ? Those cherubs were each of them fully six feet 
in height ; the reason they look so small is because everything is on a 
grand scale, and they are proportioned to the size of things about them. 
When I saw the size of these cherubs I realized more forcibly than at 
any previous moment the grandeur of St. Peter's. 

" Let me give you a few figures by way of comparison, omitting the 
hundreds. The area of St. Peter's Church is 212,000 feet, while that of 
the Cathedral of Milan is 117,000; St. Paul's, in London, 108,000; St. 
Sophia, at Constantinople, 96,000 ; the Cathedral of Cologne, 73,000 ; 
and the Catholic Cathedral of New York, 43,000. Kow just please 
read these figures over again to impress them on your memory. St. 
Peter's Church is 650 feet long on the outside and 630 feet on the 
inside. Near the entrance the nave is 162 feet high and 93 feet wide. 
Each aisle is 35 feet wide, and the total width of the church is 209 feet. 
The breadth of the transept is 220 feet. From the pavement to the 
lantern on the dome is 429 feet, and to the cross on the summit 465 
feet. The diameter of the dome is 148 feet. It is a very large dome, 
but is 3 feet less than the dome of the Pantheon, which is supposed to 
have been the model used by the architect Michael Angelo. There are 
290 windows in the church, 48 columns, 46 altars, and 390 statues. 

" There are figures enough for the present. The church occupies the 
site of the circus of Nero, where St. Peter suffered martyrdom. There 
was an earlier church here that Avas approached by an entrance court 
with colonnades, and surrounded with smaller churches, monasteries, 
and chapels. It was in this church, in the year 800, that the Emperor 
Charlemagne received the Koman imperfal crown from the hands of 
Pope Leo III., and after that time other emperors and popes received 
their crowns in this very place. The edifice became a good deal 
damaged in course of time, so that in the fifteenth and sixteenth centu- 
ries it was determined to erect a new building. To no one architect is 
due the grandeur of the edifice— all had a greater or less part in the 
work ; but it is generally conceded that the greatest of all the men con- 
nected with it was Michael Angelo. The whole expense of the con- 
struction of St. Peter's Church is said to have been £10,000,000 sterling, 
or $50,000,000, and the repairs cost about $30,000 a year. 



CASUAL GLANCES. 



299 



*' I will not undertake to describe the church in detail, as it would 
take altogether too much time and space, and besides I couldn't do it if 
I wanted to. We visited every part of the church, including the chapels 




»x- F. O. 



THE TRANSFIGURATION. — [Raphael. ] 



and the dome. We walked about the roof, and looked down upon the city 
and the winding Tiber. We climbed into the ball above the dome — at 
least, Frank and Fred did ; but mamma and I stayed below. The bones of 
St. Peter rest in the confessio, which is directly under the centre of the 



300 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



dome. Over it, on the main floor of the church, is the canopy, supported 
by four richly -gilded spiral columns surmounted with a cross. This 
canopy, as you look at it from the entrance of the church, appears to be 
of no great height, perhaps ten or twenty feet from the floor ; but it is 
really ninety feet high from base to top. 

" I was disappointed in one thing : I thought we would see a 
great many pictures in the church, but learned soon after we entered 
it that there are fewer fine pictures here than in any other church 
of importance. Most of the pictures have been removed to the Vatican, 



L _ 




PLAN OF THE ORIGIXAL CHURCH OF ST. PETER, 



and those that w^ere formerly here have been replaced by copies in 
mosaics, the mosaics being so well made that many of them might be 
taken for paintings. The church is ornamented with a great many 
statues, nearly all the popes being thus represented and many saints. 
There are monuments in memory of former popes, some of them very 
elaborate, and costing a great deal of money. 

" When we were on the roof of the church our attention was called 
to the statues which ornamented the front. We had looked at them 
from below, and they seemed to us perfect in proportion and features ; 
but when we were on the roof, and the statues were close at hand, they 
had a grotesque appearance. Their features were exaggerated, their 
figures were out of all proportion, and in several ways they seemed to 



A STUDY IN PERSPECTIVE. 



301 



be the work of the merest tyro at sculpture. Mamma wondered why it 
was they were allowed to be put here, where everything else is so taste- 
ful and in harmony with everything else. 

" Frank explained that the statues w^ere not intended to be looked 
at from the roof, but from below, and at the angle and distance whence 
a spectator sees them. Seen from the pavement they were perfect, and 




STATUE OF ST. PETER IN ST. PETER's CHURCH. 



that was what was intended. Frank said there was a story, Avhether 
true or not he could not say, that when the church was built there was 
a competition for the statues to be placed on the roof. On the day 



302 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

when judgment was to be made on the statues, they were all placed in 
the square in front of the church. Those with the grotesque features 
were laughed at, and the choice fell at once upon the statues that were 
perfect in proportion and regular in features. They were accepted, 
while the others were rejected ; and one of the accepted ones was imme- 
diately hoisted to the roof. When it was in its proper position it did 
not appear to have any features at all ; it was out of shape and dwarfed 
in every way as one looked at it from below, and the spectators derided 
it and demanded its removal at once. 

" Then the other sculptor asked that one of his statues should be 
tried. At first the proposition was laughed at, but a sense of justice 
prevailed with those in charge of the work, and so the grotesque figure 
was hoisted up. When it was in position, and the workmen stood aside 
so that it could be seen, it was found to be exactly what was needed. 
The features were regular, the proportions of the body and limbs were 
exactly what the place required, and the populace that had assembled 
to witness the trial cheered loudly the successful sculptor, whom they 
had ridiculed when they first saw his work. 

" In the open space in front of St. Peter's Church there is an obelisk 
which was brought from Egypt, and I heard an interesting story about 
placing it on its pedestal. The machinery was all ready, and the spec- 
tators had been ordered, under penalty of the severest punishment, not 
to utter a word while the work of lifting the obelisk was in progress. 
When the hoisting began the ropes stretched considerably, and, after 
rising for a short distance, the great mass of stone came to a stand-still. 
The engineer in charge of the work was puzzled, and held a consultation 
Avith his assistants. They were standing close to a group of the spec- 
tators, when a boy who saw their perplexity shouted at the top of his 
voice, ' Wet the ropes !' He was immediately pounced upon by a 
policeman for violating the order that had been issued at the beginning 
of the work, but his advice was acted upon. The wetting of the ropes 
caused them to shrink, and the obelisk was very soon hoisted into place. 
Instead of being punished, the boy was taken into the presence of the 
Pope, where the story of the occurrence Avas narrated. The Pope for- 
gave him for his violation of the order, and then asked what reward he 
desired for his valuable suggestion to the workmen. 

^' Instead of mentioning a sum of money or a bagful of sweetmeats 
as a suitable compensation, the boy asked that his family might have the 
privilege of supplying the palm leaves that are distributed at St. Peter's 
and other churches of Rome on Palm Sunday. His request was granted, 



m THE VATICAN. 



303 



and the monopoly of this privilege remains at the present day among 
his descendants, who remember him with gratitude." 

The Vatican is at the side of St. Peter's Church, and the visit to the 
two places is usually combined in one. Our friends spent so much time 




MOSAIC, SHOWING ENTRY OF CHRIST INTO JERUSALEM. 



in the church when they made their detailed visit that it was too late 
in the day for the Vatican, and they postponed their inspection of the 
latter place until the following morning. 

The Vatican is probably the largest palace in the world. It was 
originally erected as a dwelling-house for the popes, and consequently 
was made convenient to the church ; the original Vatican was annexed 
to the old Church of St. Peter, and was gradually extended as the 
power of the Church increased. It is generally believed that the Em- 
peror Charlemagae resided here at the time when he was in Rome. 

From time to time the building has been increased ; new buildings 
have been added, and sections have been joined on, one after another, 
until at present the palace is said to contain more than ten thousand 



304 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



chapels, saloons, and rooms. There are no fewer than twenty courts in 
the Vatican, and if it could be divided and moved away at least a dozen 
good-sized palaces could be constructed from it. There is a covered 
passage-way leading from the Yatican to the Castle of St. Angelo, which 




THE ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN. 



ART TREASURES OF THE VATICAN. 



305 




was constructed more than four hundred years ago. From a strategic 
point of view the Vatican was a stonghold of no small consequence be- 
fore the invention of artillery, but it could make only a slight resistance 
to the fire-arms of the present day. 

" I cannot give you a full description of the Yatican," said Mary in 
her journal, " any more than I could describe in detail the Church of 
St. Peter, and will only undertake to 
tell you about a few of the things 
we saw. In the first place, the art 
treasures of the Yatican are among 
the finest in the world. In the vari- 
ous halls and galleries are collected 
works of the greatest masters that 
have ever existed. I could spend 
days and days there, and so could 
any one who is a lover of pictures. 
Even a simple list of the pictures 
and statuary in the Yatican would 
fill many pages, and the visitor who 
goes there expecting to look at every- 
thing will soon find that he has 
undertaken to do far more than is 
within his power to execute. 

" One of the finest halls in the Yatican is the Sistine Chapel, which 
received its name from being erected under Sixtus lY., in 14Y3. It is 
decorated with beautiful frescos by Florentine masters of the fifteenth 
century, which represent parallel scenes from the lives of Christ and 
Moses. As you stand in front of the altar facing the entrance-wall the 
scenes of the life of Christ are on the right hand, and those dealing 
with the life of Moses are on the left. They extend along the sides of 
the chapel until they meet at the entrance- wall. Portraits of twenty- 
eight of the popes are painted on the pillars between the windows, but 
we gave little attention to them, as we found the frescos of much more 
interest. They are worthy of the highest praise. 

" The great work of art in the Sistine Chapel is the ceiling, which 
was painted, so history tells us, by Michael Angelo. We learned at 
Florence what a rapid worker he was ; but even with the knowledge that 
we had concerning him we were surprised at the extent of the painting 
in the Sistine Chapel. The painting represents the preparation of the 
world for the coming of the Saviour. The Creation, the Fall, and the 

20 



ANCIKNT KNOCKER. 



S06 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



Deluge are represented in the centre of the ceiling, and around these 
paintings are the figures of the prophets who predicted the coming of 
the Messiah, and the ancestors of Christ who expected him. These pict- 
ures are combined so as to 
form an exquisite whole; 
and there are great numbers 
of accessary figures, relief- 
medallions, and other things, 
so that the painting requires 
considerable study before 
one can begin to make out 
all its component parts. 

" On the wall back of 
the altar is the celebrated 
painting, also by Michael 
Angelo, representing the 
Last Judgment, but it is not 
in a good light, and has 
been blackened and injured 
by the torches and candles 
used in the chapel. We 
studied the painting for 
some time, but really one 
can get a better idea of 
it from a good engraving 
than from the painting it- 
self, for the reason that the 
engraving shows very dis- 
tinctly many points that 
are decidedly obscure in the 
picture as it now is. 

" Another very interest- 
ing part of the Vatican was 
the Loggie of EaphaeL 
We reached it by the same 
flight of stairs that took us 
to the Sistine Chapel; the 
chapel is on the first floor, while the Loggie of Eaphael is on the 
second floor. The paintings are partly by Eaphael and partly by his 
pupils from drawings made by the master. There is an almost endless 




STATUE OF AUGUSTUS — VATICAN COLLECTION. 



A FAMOUS COLLECTION. 



307 



number of pictures, all of religious subjects, some from the Old Testa- 
ment and some from the New. Part of the pictures are upon canvas, 
and the rest are frescos on the wall and cannot be moved. 

" Perhaps you imagine that the paintings I have described form a 
part of the Picture-gallery, but you are mistaken. The Picture-gallery 
is quite a little distance from the Sistine Chapel, and is comparatively 
modern, as it was founded by Pope Pius YII., who collected in this 
gallery the pictures which the French had taken away from the churches 
and were compelled to restore in 1815. They were the finest in Kome, 




BELLS OP ANCIENT ROME. 



and probably would have never been brought together as we now find 
them had it not been for their removal to Paris during the wars of 
E'apoleon. In the collection is the famous ' Transfiguration,' by Kaph- 
ael ; ' The Annunciation,' by the same artist ; ' The Communion of 
St. Jerome,' by Da Yinci ; and ' The Adoration of the Shepherds,' by 
Murillo. These famous pictures include only a comparatively small part 
of the great works by the same and other artists. They are well known 
to lovers of art, generally by means of the engravings and copies that 
have been made of them, and therefore it is useless for me to attempt to 
describe, or even to name them, in this brief narrative. 

" There is a museum of statues in the Vatican,'' Mary continued, 
" which equals the Picture-gallery in extent and magnificence ; in fact, 
I believe it is regarded as the finest collection of antiquities in the world. 
It contains some of the best of the old Eoman statues, including the 



308 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

'Apollo Belvedere,' ' The Laocoon,' and ' The Torso of Hercules,' which 
have received the admiration and praise of all sculptors who ever saw 
them. Apart from these famous pieces there are statues and busts in 
great number, enough to supply half a dozen museums and leave a good 
many pieces to spare. We spent some time in this collection, and were 
very unwilling to leave it. Quite as interesting as the statues was the 
collection of utensils of every-day life and personal ornaments, which 
tell us a great deal about the ancient Komans, how they lived, and what 
they did. There were keys with Avhich they locked their doors and 
chests, and some of these keys were so small that they were attached to 
finger-rings. There were bronze knockers which came from the doors 
of their houses, many of them of very curious workmanship, and pre- 
senting the heads of animals, together with grotesque caricatures of the 
human face. Then there were bells, some round and others square, 
some large and others small, and many of them very beautifully wrought. 
On one of the bells there was an inscription which signified Earth, Air, 
Fire, and Water, these being the four elements of nature, as taught by 
some of the most ancient philosophers. 

" The kitchen utensils were more ornamental than the kitchen uten- 
sils of the present day. We saw a Avine-strainer whose handle was 
beautifully decorated with figures of animals, and the holes through the 
thin bronze were arranged in very pretty figures. There are some Ko- 
man chairs in the museum; they are very interesting on account of 
their age, but they don't look as comfortable as the chairs we use at the 
present time. One of them has a straight and high back, while another 
has a back only a few inches in height, so that it is little better than no 
back at all. As nearly as I can make out the houses of the old Eomans 
were not very comfortably furnished according to our notions, but I 
suppose they were suited to the times and to the tastes of the people. 

" Our attention Avas called to a couch, and Frank explained to me 
that these couches were used at dinner, the old Eomans being accus- 
tomed to recline at their feasts instead of sitting upright, as we do. It 
is supposed that this custom began from the daily use of the bath, as 
the Eomans were in the habit of bathing just before their evening meal; 
it was their practice to rest after a bath, and so they would lie down on 
their couches and be served with food by their attendants. 

" The tables of the rich were made of costly wood and adorned with 
tortoise-shells, ivory, and valuable stones ; and the couches were covered 
with thick quilts, or mattresses, embroidered in gold, and made of ex- 
pensive materials. The poorer classes of the people were obliged to eat 



GLASS-WORKING IN OLD ROME. 



309 



from plain tables, or more likely from no tables at all. They had cups 
and goblets of gold, silver, and crystal, and also of glass, and I was sur- 
prised to find to what an extent the old Komans carried the art of 
working in glass, and the beautiful things made of it. 

" We have seen vases and bottles which reminded us of vases and 
decanters of the present time. Some of the glass goblets from which 




jioMct. 



SECTION OP THE PANTHEON. 



they drank their wine have a peculiar color that changes with the 
changing of the light upon them. Many of their pitchers, vases, and 
goblets were made in the form of animals. We saw one pitcher which 
was in the form of a goat sitting upright ; the open mouth of the animal 
raised in the air formed the mouth of the pitcher, and his horns, curved 
so as to touch his back, made the handle. 

" I wish I had time to tell you even a tenth part of what we saw in 
the Yatican Museum, but Frank is calling me, and I must lay aside my 
pen for I don't know how long." 



310 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 




When Frank interrupted Mary it was to tell her it 
was time to start for their visit to the Pantheon, which 
is the best preserved ancient edifice in Kome. Accord- 
ing to history, it was erected in the year 27 before the 
Christian era; it has suffered a good deal from the de- 
struction that went on in Kome for so long, but happily 
the destruction was less than that of the other buildings. 
It was consecrated as a Christian church in the year 610, 
and in this way its preservation was greatly assisted. 
The ground in its vicinity has been raised, so that the 
pavement of the temple is considerably below the level 
of the surrounding space, although originally it w^as 
approached by an ascent of several steps. It has a por- 
tico of sixteen columns of granite nearly forty feet in 
height. These columns were arranged to form three 
colonnades, and in these colonnades there formerly 
stood, along with others, the colossal statues of the Em- 
peror Augustus and his son-in-law Agrippa. 

The Pantheon is in the shape of a dome, and the 
only light that enters it is through the aperture at the 
top. This circular opening is twenty-eight feet in diam- 
eter, and is formed by an immense ring of bronze that 
must have taxed the ingenuity of the engineers to put it 
in place. The origin of the name of the Pantheon has 
never been fully explained, but one tradition is that the 
beautiful effect of the interior lighted from above was 
such as to make it resemble the vault of heaven. Orig- 
inally the Pantheon w^as covered with gilded bronze 
tiles, which were removed by one of the emperors during 
the seventh century. Some of the bronze pillars of the 
Pantheon were taken away to be converted into the col- 
umns of the high altar of the Church of St. Peter, and 
into cannon for the Castle of St. Angelo. 

^'As w^e have seen the best preserved building of 
ancient Rome," said Fred in his journal, " I must not 
fail to mention the best preserved of the many columns 
with which the city Avas once adorned. This is Trajan's Column, which 
stands now, where it has stood since the time of that Emperor, on what 
is called the Forum of Trajan. The column, with its pedestal and the 
statue on its top, is one hundred and fifty - eight feet high, and it is 




Trajan's column. 



AN AMERICAN STORY. 



311 



twelve feet in diameter at its base. It is covered with reliefs which 
describe Trajan's war with the Dacians, and it is said that there are 
more than twenty -five hundred human figures represented in these 
reliefs, each figure being two feet high. This column served as the 
model for the famous Yendome Column in Paris, and it has served as 
the model for other columns both ancient and modern. 

" There is a story that an American visitor to Eome once called on a 
sculptor, and asked him to make an 
estimate for erecting a column on 
the plan of that of Trajan's. ' I 
want my ow^n history on a monu- 
ment just like that,' he explained. 
* I want a picture of myself at the 
bottom of the column beginning life 
as a farmer's boy in the country, 
then working as clerk in a country 
store, teaching a district school, 
running a saw-mill, driving a stage, 
conducting a railroad, and so on 
through a dozen different occupa- 
tions, and with my statue on the 
top just like that statue on Trajan's 
Column. I want it to set up in the 
city where I live in America, so 
that everybody can see it and know 
who I am.' 

''The sculptor was appalled at 
the proposition, and said it would 
take a long time for him to make 
an estimate, and, furthermore, the 
execution of the work would cost 

many thousands of dollars, and require ten or twenty years for its 
completion. The American concluded to drop the subject and be 
content with a monument of a more modest character." 




MONUMENTAL URN. 



CHAPTER XYII. 

THE CATACOMBS OF ROME, AND A VISIT TO THEM. — MEMENTOS OF EARLY 
CHRISTIAN PERSECUTION. — CATACOMB OF ST. CALIXTUS. — PASSAGES AND 
ROOMS UNDERGROUND. — PAINTINGS ON THE WALLS. — BURIAL NICHES AND 
VAULTS.— FROM ROME TO NAPLES.— CAPUA.— THE APPIAN WAY.— THE BAY OF 
NAPLES.— EXTENT AND BEAUTY OF THE CITY ; ITS HISTORY.— CASTLE OF ST. 
ELMO, AND VIEWS FROM ITS WALLS.— STREET SCENES OF NAPLES.— OUT-DOOR 
LIFE. — STRADA SANTA LUCIA AND THE PROMONTORY. —OYSTER MEN AND 
FRUTTI DI MARE.— LAZZARONI, AND THEIR HISTORY; HOW THEY E.IT MACA- 
RONL— A FREE LUNCH IN THE STREET. —PERAMBULATING RESTAURANTS.— 
STREET LETTER-WRITERS, AND THEIR OCCUPATION.— ZAMPOGNARL— RASCALI- 
TIES OF BOATMEN AND CARRIAGE DRIVERS ; HOW TO MEET THEM.— A DRIVER'S 
PHILOSOPHY. -CHURCHES AND THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



B io IS zo zsMtr. 



^ ] ^^^^^v^-^-^^^g^:^^^?^:y%l>-^^\\\^^^^ ^ 




PLAN OF THE CATACOMB OF ST. CALIXTUS. 



FEAJSTK and Fred arranged for a visit to the Catacombs, which are 
an interesting feature of sight-seeing in Rome. The Catacombs 
were the burial-places of the early Christians, and were comparatively 
little known in modern times until the present century. Investigations 
concerning them are constantly going on, and every year adds some- 
thing to our information concerning them. Originally the term Cata- 
combs referred to those under the Church of St. Sebastian, but it is 
now applied to all the subterranean passages in and about Rome. 
Some of them were excavated especially for the purpose of Christian 



IN THE CATACOMBS. 



313 



burial, and others were made in search of puzzolona, a peculiar earth or 
stone which, when mixed with lime, forms the famous Koman cement. 
Some of the Catacombs were family tombs, and some were like ceme- 
teries, as they were owned by societies formed by the Christians for 
interment in the days of Christian persecution. 

There are various theories and traditions concerning the Catacombs, 
one being that their localities and the 
entrances to them were carefully con- 
cealed, and that the Christians fled 
to these places to escape persecution, 
the Romans not knowing where they 
were. Doubtless it is true that in 
some cases the earl}^ Christians found 
the Catacombs a secure retreat against 
persecution, but it can hardly have 
been the case with all of them. They 
extend around the city in a wide cir- 
cle, and many of them are beneath the 
city itself. There are said to have 
been some thirty or more of them, but 
at the present time only a few are ac- 
cessible. Visitors are usually taken 
to the Catacomb of Calixtus, which 
is on the Appian Way, a little more 
than a mile beyond the San Sebastian 
gate. The entrance to it is in a 
small vineyard, and adjoins a brick 

building which was quite neglected until the middle of the present cen- 
tury, when it was accidentally discovered to be a chapel of St. Calixtus. 

" There was a small party of us," said Fred, " perhaps ten or twelve 
in all, and we were instructed to follow closely after one another, keep- 
ing all the time within sight or hearing of the guide. There are many 
lateral passages in the Catacombs, and it is said that visitors have some- 
times wandered off and been lost, their absence not being noticed until 
too late to find them, but such occurrences are infrequent. 

" The passages were quite narrow, so that it was necessary for us to 
walk in single file for the greater part of the way. Here and there a 
passage widened into rooms or chambers, and the walls of these cham- 
bers contained niches which had been the tombs of the early Christians. 
They showed us the tombs of several of the early popes and bishops. 




PAPAL VAULT IN THE CATACOMB. 



314 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



the identity of the places being known by the inscription above or be- 
low them. There are great numbers of inscriptions all through the 
Catacombs, and they are supposed to have been made between the 
third and sixth centuries, and possibly later. 

" The walls of the narrow passages, as well as those of the rooms, 
contain niches where the dead were laid to rest, and it is evident that a 
great number of people found their resting-place here during the time 
that Christianity was under ban in Kome. One of the rooms that 
they showed us contained the tomb of St. Cecilia, whose remains are 
now in the Koman church that bears her name. Some of the walls are 
ornamented with paintings which date from various centuries between 
the fourth and the eighth. Mass is celebrated in this tomb on St. Cecilia's 
Day, the chapel and adjoining chambers being lighted up and open to 




CRYPT IN THE CATACOMB OF CALIXTUS. 



the public. In one of the tombs there is a stone coffin containing the 
remains of the original occupant, dried so that in its general appearance 
it resembles an Egyptian mummy. 

"We spent an hour or more in this Catacomb, wandering through 
the passages, looking at the inscriptions and paintings on the walls, 
examining the burial - places, and listening to the explanations of the 
guide, which were not always easy to understand. The guide and sev- 
eral others carried torches, and the smoke from these torches made the 



FROM ROME TO NAPLES. 315 

atmosphere anything but clear. We were all of us glad when we saw 
the light shining at the place of exit, and were told that our journey 
was at an end. The guide suggested that we could visit some of the 
other Catacombs, but we concluded that our experience in this line of 
underground exploration was all that we desired." 

Visits were made to the principal palaces and villas that are open to 
the public in and around the city, and the days pa,ssed pleasantly and 
rapidly. The account of what our friends saw and learned at Rome 
would fill a volume of goodly size, and even then much would be left 
untold. One morning the party took the train for ^^aples. Several 
places of interest were pointed out as they sped along the railway, but 
we will not attempt to describe them. 

The ride between the two cities was greatly enjoyed. Frank said 
they might have found it more interesting if they had gone, as many 
tourists go, by carriage, instead of making the more expeditious journey 
by railway. The train by which they travelled carried them from 
Rome to Naples in about seven hours ; the journey by carriage occu- 
pies three days, and for a part of the distance the route follows the 
Appian Way of ancient Rome. Portions of the Yia Appia, which ex- 
tended from Rome to Capua, are identical with the modern road, while 
other portions follow a different route. The Roman roads were very 
solidly constructed ; so well were they made that those which have 
been neglected for hundreds of years can still be traced, and in many 
places are in a passable condition. The carriage road down to a few 
years ago was rather unsafe, on account of the brigandage which pre- 
vailed in this part of Italy. The Government has now suppressed it, but 
occasionally it happens that travellers are stopped by robbers, and com- 
pelled to pay heavily to their captors for the privilege of continuing 
their journey with life and limb unharmed. 

When our friends reached Naples and caught sight of the beautiful 
bay on which the city stands Mrs. Bassett and Mary were quite excited 
with delight. They had read and heard much of the great beauty of 
the situation, but were unprepared for all the attractions that met their 
eyes in the scene before them. 

From time immemorial the Bay of Naples has been celebrated for 
its loveliness. Writers in ancient times sounded its praises just as 
warmly as do those of the present day. The city stands on a sweep or 
bend of the bay, and the visitor along any part of the shore has con- 
stantly before his eyes a beautiful panorama. The Neapolitans claim 
that the position of their city is the finest in the world, and so firmly 



316 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



are they impressed with this belief that one of their favorite sayings is, 
" Vedi Napoli e poi mori /" (See Naples and then die !) Mary said 
that when she first heard the expression she could not understand why 
one should wish to see Naples and then cease to live. She thought it 
far preferable to keep on living and see it again. 

Naples was formerly the capital of the kingdom of the same name 
and now is the capital of a province. Its population exceeds half a 
million, which makes it the largest city of Italy, and it has many attrac- 
tions and advan- 
tages that bring 
thousands of stran- 
gers there every 
year in search of 
health or enjoy- 
ment. It cannot 
boast of many an- 
tiquities of its own, 
but the ruins of 
Herculanean and 
Pompeii make up 
for the deficiency. 
Mrs. Bassett re- 
marked that she 
thought Naples a 
much more noisy 
city than Eome ; 
Mary explained this 




DECORATED CRYPT, CATACOMB OF CALIXTUS. 



on the ground that 
it had more inhabi- 
tants, and consequently there were more people to make a noise. 
Certainly the streets of Naples are much more animated than those of 
Rome, and they present a greater variety of scenes of every-da}^ life 
than does the last-named city. There are more vehicles in motion, and 
more people on foot. There are peddlers, guides, drivers, beggars, and 
others whose sources of living are precarious, in far greater number 
than in the capital city. Not only are they more numerous, but they 
are more insolent in their ways, and after her second or third day in 
the city Mary suggested that she began to understand why one should 
see Naples and then die : it was in order to escape the importunities 
and annoyances that beset the stranger at every step. 



GENERAL VIEW OF NAPLES. 



317 



Our friends followed their usual custom of taking a drive about the 
city and its immediate neighborhood before plunging into the details 
of sight -seeing. They found the area of Naples somewhat less than 
they had expected, as its total length does not exceed three miles, while 
its breadth from the bay to its rearward limits is not over two miles. 
There is a good 
deal of up and 
down in N^aples, 
as the city is 
built on the 
slopes of several 
hills which rise 
from the water 
in the form of 
the half of an 
amphitheatre. 
Frank suggested 
that if the place 
were converted 
into an enor- 
mous Colosseum, 




VIEW ON THE APPIAN WAY. 



there would be 

seating capacity for a goodly portion of the population of the whole of 

Italy, provided they sat close together. 

The principal streets of Naples are of good width and handsome, 
but the smaller ones are very narrow, and bounded on each side by 
lofty buildings, between which the light of day does not always pene- 
trate with full force. Some parts of the city are densely crowded, and 
in times of cholera and other epidemics the mortality is very great, 
owing to the closely-packed population. Of late years the authorities 
have endeavored to remedy this defect by constructing new streets and 
commodious dwellings, but the removal of the narrow and unhealthy 
streets proceeds more slowly than is desirable. 

The prosperity of the city is made manifest by large numbers of new 
buildings that have been erected on what was formerly unoccupied 
ground, and the popularity of Naples with visitors is indicated by the 
abundance and extent of its hotels. The western quarter of the city 
may almost be considered the foreign one, as the side of it facing the 
water consists of a series of hotels, w4iile the buildings in the neighbor- 
hood of these establishments are largely devoted to lodgings that are 



318 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



let to strangers. In the older parts of the city many of the streets 
have no sidewalks, and consequently afford very poor accommodation 
for foot-passengers, who are often jostled unpleasantly. 

We will listen to Fred, from whose journal and his letters to friends 
at home we are permitted to make an extract : 

" We all gave a sigh of relief when w^e learned that practically there 
were no Koman antiquities in Naples, except such as are in the museum. 
Although we were much interested in what we saw in Eome, we felt 
that we had had quite enough for the present about the emperors and 
the buildings they constructed. But it is not to be understood that 
IS"aples is not an old city. According to history, the foundations of a 
colony were laid here more than a thousand years before the Christian 
era, and the place was a flourishing one at the time of the reputed 
foundation of Eome. When Eome grew powerful it conquered Neapo- 
lis (New City), and the beauty of its situation made it a favorite resi- 
dence of the great men of Eome. Lucullus had gardens in the neigh- 
borhood of Naples, Augustus resided here at times, and so did half a 

dozen other emperors. Yirgil com- 
posed many of his poems here, and 
during our first drive we were 
shown the location of his tomb, or, 
at all events, what purports to be the 
last resting-place of the great poet. 
" Naples has five forts and four 
0%^ gates, which date from times which 

we in America would call ancient, 
\ though they are modern enough 
I when compared with the antiquities 
of Eome. We have given a hasty 
glance at these forts, the one which 
received the most of our attention 
being the Castle of St. Elmo, not so 
much on account of its historical 
interest as by reason of its position. 
It is said to have been built more 
than ^VG hundred years ago, and close to it are the monastery and 
Church of San Martino, Avhich is somewhat older than the castle. The 
view from the walls of the castle, or from the belvedere of the church, 
is perfectly enchanting, and we were reluctant to leave it. 

''The castle is on one of the highest hills surrounding the Bay of 




ANTIQUE BUST, MUSKUM OF CAPUA. 



THE BAY OF NAPLES. 



319 



]S"aples, so that we have the whole of that sheet of water in view, and 
can look upon the islands of Capri and Ischia, while away to the left 
we have the smoking cone of Vesuvius, and between Yesuvius and 
Capri the panorama includes the heights of Sorrento. At the time of 
our visit the bay was thickly dotted with boats of various sorts and 




MEW OF NAPLES FROM POSILIPPO. 



kinds, while steamers were coming and going through the channels 
which connect the bay with the sea. There was a fringe of masts 
along the water-front, and from the city below us rose the hum of busy 
life. The air was clear and balmy, and the sky was of that beautiful 
blue for which ]^aples is famous, the blue above being reflected from 
the water below, which was slightly ruffled by a gentle breeze. 

" We were glad indeed that our visit was made on such a day rather 
than on a dull one, as every feature of the landscape had a most pleas- 
ing tint. The view from the belvedere of the church is less extensive 
than that from the summit of the castle, but it is more picturesque, be- 
cause the city is brought nearer to the spectator, and his attention is 
not drawn away to the mountains and hills in the distance, which are 
included in the higher view. 



320 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

"Thus far we have found the scenes of ^N'aples full of interest. 
From its southerly position and its enclosure in a sheltered bay it has 
a more genial climate than the more northern cities of Italy, and con- 
sequently the people pass much more of their life out-of-doors. Women 
are working in front of the houses or along the sides of the streets; 
boot-makers, tailors, and other tradesmen perform their avocations un- 
der the shelter of the sky, or possibly beneath little awnings which are 
stretched to mitigate the heat of the sun. Children, scantily clad, are 
playing in little groups, though the play ceases instantly on the advent 
of strangers, and a dozen little hands are extended in supplication for 
the small coin that will avert starvation. 

" We think that the children of Naples surpass those of the north- 
ern part of Italy in the rapidity with which they can suppress their 
laughter and change their merry voices into tones of whining entreaty. 
The ' lightning-change artists ' of the variety stage could obtain points 
by studying the habits of the street - urchins of this Neapolitan city. 
Let them come for a day to Strada Santa Lucia, and wander among 
the people that haunt the sides of the quay and the Promontory below 
it, and they will learn something to their advantage. 

" Perhaps I ought to explain that the Strada Santa Lucia is a part 
of the water-front which was formerly an insignificant street, but has 
latterly been converted into a broad and well-paved quay. The land 
side of it is fringed with fine buildings ; on the sea-front there is a rail- 
ing, and through this railing is a passage by steps to what is called the 
Promontory, a broad strip of paved ground whose edge is washed by 
the waters of the bay. 

" Along the water-side of the Strada, and also along the Promon- 
tory, there are numerous oyster-stands which are devoted to the sale of 
the bivalve whose name they bear, and also of various other marine 
delicacies, called by the Neapolitans //'i^^^^^i'' di mare; comprised in these 
delicacies are sea-urchins, crabs, and fish of various kinds. The oysters 
are tempting in appearance, but a resident doctor whom we met at the 
hotel told us to beware of them. He said that many cases of typhus 
and other maladies had been traced to the oysters of Santa Lucia ; he 
explained that they were kept in disagreeable proximity to the mouths 
of the sewers, and hence their unsanitary character. If you ever come 
to Naples let me advise you to beware of the oyster, unless you know 
positively that he has just been brought from the oyster-beds in distant 
parts of the bay ; even then he cannot be fully trusted. 

"The number of people along the water-front leads us to believe 



NEAPOLITAN LAZZARONI. 



321 



that there is a great deal of idleness in ]S^aples. There is a vast num- 
ber of people here whose principal occupation is no occupation at all, 
and they are encouraged in their idleness by the Italian proverb, ' Dolce 
far niente^ (It is sweet to do nothing). They are content if they 
can get enough to satisfy their appetites, and are not greatly disturbed 
in mind if compelled to go hungry. Closely associated with the com- 
plete idlers are those who have no fixed occupations or regular employ- 
ments, and altogether they make up a considerable part of the popu- 
lation of this densely inhabited city. 

" Formerly this class was known as Lazzaroni, their name being de- 
rived from that of Lazarus in the scriptural parable. In former times 
they had a chief of their own, whose title was Capo Lazzaroni, and he 
exercised great power over them. When revolutions were fashionable 
in the Kingdom of E'aples, the Lazzaroni always had a prominent part 




SANTA LUCIA AND CASTELLO PELL'OVO. 



in them, and they used to defy the laws of the land, and obey only the 
edicts of their chief. They are no longer recognized as a separate class, 
and have no government of their own, though the name is still given 
to the boatmen and fishermen of the city, who are really the most in- 
dustrious of all the lower classes of the population. 

21 



322 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



" We had heard, as everybody has, of the fondness of the :N"eapoli- 
tans for macaroni, and while in the vicinity of the water-front we told 
our guide we would like to see how the natives ate this article. 




THE OYSTEEMAN. 



" ' That is the easiest thing in the world,' said the guide ; ' if you 
will pay for some macaroni, you will see how they eat it.' 

" I nodded assent, and handed a franc to the guide. He led the way 
to a macaroni-stand, and we were quickly surrounded by a dozen or 
more of the ragged idlers of the locality. The vender of the delicacy 
dished out as many platefuls of macaroni as the franc would pay for, 
and they were at once distributed to the hungry and struggling crowd. 
If Mary had not been able to stifle her laughter whenever she thought 
proper to do so, I am afraid she would have gone into convulsions at 



HOW TO EAT MACARONI. 



323 



seeing the way in which the macaroni was disposed of. It was in 
strings, anywhere from a foot to two feet in length ; the way of eating 
it is to take one of these strings by the end, hold it in the air above the 
open mouth, and then let it slip down the throat. Long practice has 
made the natives expert at the business. In less than a minute — well, it 
may possibly have been two minutes — every plate was cleared. We 
paid to have the plates refilled, and again refilled, but at the end of the 
third performance the diners seemed to be as hungry as ever, and we 
gave up in despair the attempt to satisfy their appetites. 

" During our stroll we passed some perambulating restaurants, and 
stopped near one of them to see how it was managed. A man and a 
woman comprised the working force of the establishment, the man 
dipping out a curious-looking soup 
which included macaroni, fish, frag- 
ments of meat, and I don't know 
what else. The soup was in a large 
kettle, resting on a box on the 
pavement, and the ladle with which 
he dipped out the soup held per- 
haps a little less than a quart. The 
soup was poured into a large plate 
or bowl, and this, with a piece of 
bread, comprised the meal, for 
which each customer paid due soldi 
(two cents). The money was taken 
by the woman, and as she received 
the coins from a patron she handed 
to him a large piece of bread, with 
which he turned to the man to ob- 
tain the other part of the meal. 
The possession of the bread indi- 
cated that he had paid his money, 
and Frank remarked that it was 
the first time he ever saw a slice of 
bread used as a ticket for soup. 

" Letter-writers are quite a feature of Neapolitan life, and we have 
seen several of them along the streets. The stock in trade of one of 
these individuals consists of a small table, two chairs, possibly an um- 
brella for use as a sunshade, and a supply of pens, ink, and paper. One 
of the chairs is for the scribe and the other for his customer, and Mary 




ZAMPOGNARI PLATING BEFORE A SHRINE. 



324 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



noted that the customers, in nine cases out of ten, were women. Com- 
paratively few of the lower classes of Neapolitans can read or write ; 
writing is decidedly a rare accomplishment among them, and w^hen let- 
ters are to be sent it is necessary to invoke the services of the public 
scribe. We had seen this individual in Rome and other of the Italian 
cities, but not as frequently as in Naples. The 
patrons of the scribe being mostly young and 
pretty women, the conclusion is natural that his 
chief occupation is that of writing love-letters. It 
is very interesting to stand at a little distance and 
watch the expression on a pretty face as the lips 
are uttering the w^ords which 
the scribe is to put on paper. 

'' A curious personage that 
w^e saw in one of our strolls w^as 
a street tragedian. In a little 
nook, perhaps eight or ten feet 
square, a man had surrounded 
himself with planks supported 
on boxes or chairs. These 
planks served as seats for his au- 
dience, or at least the more se- 
lect portion, the rest of them 
being accommodated with stand- 
ing-room in the rear. In the 
enclosure, which was about six 
feet square, stood a man in ordi- 
nary every-day dress, and very ordinary at that, loudly declaiming or 
reciting the impassioned parts of an Itahan tragedy. Exactly what he 
was saying we did not know. Our guide told us that the man was an 
actor, and when an actor is out of employment, and also out of money, 
he manages to obtain a subsistence by thus reciting in public. He has 
no fixed charge for a place in his improvised theatre, but relies on the 
generosity of those who listen to him. We asked what was a proper 
compensation for a spectator, and the guide said that two or three soldi 
would be considered liberal, and five soldi a princely rcAvard ; if the 
amount averaged one soldi for every hstener the performer was more 
than usually fortunate, and might retire in a few years. 

" We saw a good many street musicians of various kinds, but they 
were not novel sights, as you will easily understand, seeing that the 




THE PUBLIC SCRIBE. 



ZAMPOGNARI. 



325 



hand-organ has long been known in the United States. A few were 
new to us, however ; they wore pointed felt-hats, and were wrapped in 
long brown cloaks, which concealed the rest of the costume. When the 
cloaks were removed they revealed cloth or goat-skin jackets adorned 
with large buttons, and legs incased in tight-fitting knee-breeches. The 
feet of the men were sometimes, though not generally, covered with 
shoes ; more frequently they wore sandals, or rags which were fastened 
about the ankles with leather thongs. 

" The guide said these people were known as zampognari^ and that 
they came from the mountains of the Abruzzi to play during the Church 
festivals, after which they usually wandered back again to the country. 
The more prominent the Church festival is the greater is the number 
of these musicians. They are most numerous at Christmas-time, when 




ZAMPOGNAKI IN THE STKEEX. 



people are disposed to be liberal, and sometimes an industrious group 
will gather in a good-sized bagful of copper coins in the course of the 
day. They play upon bagpipes and instruments resembling flutes, and 
stop in front of the shrines which abound in all the towns of southern 
Italy, and also in front of houses, just as street musicians do in other 
lands. Their presence is a delight to the children, and nearly every 



326 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

group of these musicians that we have seen is surrounded by impromptu 
dancers of both sexes and tender ages. 

" The Italians, as everj^body knows, are fond of music, and this fond- 
ness prevails among the children of the lower classes as much as with 
the aristocracy. The strains of a bagpipe and flute are sure to start the 
muscles of the juvenile feet of E"aples, and so intent have we found the 
children on the pleasures of the dance that they have actually neglected 
on several occasions to stop their sport in order to beg from us when we 
appeared on the scene and paused to look on. 

'' The boatmen of Naples are a picturesque lot of men, very indus- 
trious when they have an opportunity for employment, and very dis- 
honest when they come in contact with a foreigner and have the chance 
to defraud him. The true I^eapolitan boatman wears a knitted cap in- 
stead of the ordinary hat or cap of civilization. It is proper to say that 
the old costumes of the country are disappearing year by year, probably 
for the reason that ordinary garments made by wholesale are cheaper 
than the peculiar garb which formerly distinguished these people. 

" Whenever we have been near the water-side we have been beset 
by boatmen desiring engagement, but have invariably declined them, 
not that we were averse to excursions on the water, but every affair of 
the sort is pretty certain to end in trouble. The IS'eapolitan boatman, 
cabman, guide, or other individual who serves the stranger, almost in- 
variably demands, when the time comes for payment, more than was 
agreed upon. If you employ a cabman to take you to a particular 
place and return for a stipulated amount of money, he has no hesitation 
at the end of the drive at declaring solemnly that you agreed to pay 
several francs more than stipulated, and he will call other cabmen to 
testify that the amount he demands is the regular fare. 

" Engage a boatman to take you to a steamer in the harbor, agree- 
ing to pay him three francs for the transport of yourself and baggage, 
and he starts off as though perfectly content. Half-way to the steamer 
he stops rowing and demands four francs. If you refuse and remind 
him of his agreement, he threatens to row back again to the shore. It 
may be near the hour of departure for your steamer, and you cannot 
afford the loss of time for going to the shore and making a fresh start. 
You accede to his demand by force of circumstances, and he proceeds ; 
but after a dozen strokes of the oars he stops again and demands five 
francs. 

" You are in a dilemma. You cannot know where it will end, and 
whatever course you adopt you feel that you are the victim of an im- 



HOW TO MEET FRAUD. 



327 



position. Under circumstances like these it is necessary to be either 
firm or diplomatic. If your party is numerically and physically the 
stronger, you can threaten to throw the boat man or men overboard un- 
less they go on. Sometimes the threat to hand the fellows over to the 
police will frighten them into good-behavior, and if you decide to return 
to the shore the rascals will be very unwilling to go back with you, as 
they know they will be liable to punishment. A gentleman ^vho has 
had considerable experience with the boatmen of N'aples and other Med- 




THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



iterranean ports, tells me that he has found the easiest way out of the 
trouble is to assent to all the demands that are made upon him. The 
price may be doubled or trebled upon him, but he nods his willingness 
to pay, and in due time is safe on board the steamer with his baggage. 
Then he gives the boatman exactly the amount he had agreed to give 
and no more, and Avhile the latter is counting over the money the travel- 
ler goes below, and is out of reach of all expostulation, as the boatmen 



328 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

are never under any circumstances permitted to descend beneath the 
deck of a passenger steamship. 

" This morning, when we returned from an excursion in a carriage, 
the driver demanded nearly double what we had agreed to pay him. 
Frank counted out the exact amount which had been stipulated, and 
placed it in the fellow's hands. The driver appeared to be angry, but 
was quieted with the suggestion that the police-station was close by. 
He spoke French very well, and on finding that he could not get any 
more for his services he immediately set about engaging to take us on 
our next drive. I asked him why it was that he and his fellows were in 
the habit of lying so outrageously in regard to their agreements with 
strangers, to which he coolly answered : 

" ' Oh, signor, you foreigners always pay us what you agree to, and 
we are sure of that. If we can get anything more from you by lying- 
it is our duty to do so, as we have families to support and must make all 
we can. Providence sends us the strangers to fleece.' 

" There's philosophy for you, and the theory on which he proceeds 
seems to be that of the greater part of the people with whom we come 
in contact in this country, and not alone the lower classes." 

Fred has given in the foregoing a very good description of certain 
phases of Neapolitan life, and the characteristics of that portion of the 
population with whom the stranger is brought in contact. While he 
has been busy in its preparation, Frank has been endeavoring to tell 
about some of the attractions of the city. Let us listen to him : 

" There are about three hundred churches in Naples," said Frank,. 
" but only a very few of them possess any interest, after one has visited 
the churches of Kome and other cities farther to the north. We have 
visited the cathedral and a few other churches, but our visits to them 
have been very brief. We have been much more interested in the 
museum, which, next to that of the Vatican, may be regarded as the 
finest in Italy. It was formerly known as the Eoyal Bourbon Museum, 
but latterly, since Naples became united with the rest of Italy, it has 
been called The National Museum. The building was erected as a 
cavalry barrack about three hundred years ago, but since 1790 it has. 
contained the royal collection of antiquities and pictures. The antiqui- 
ties found in the ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum are brought ta 
this museum to be exhibited, except in the instances where they will 
not bear removal and transportation. 

" Additions are made to the collection whenever there is any dis- 
covery of importance in the excavations, which go on somewhat irregu- 



THE ROYAL MUSEUM. 



329 



larly at Pompeii; but the other parts of the museum are said to 
remain pretty much the same, from year to year. 

" As we enter the building we come in sight of several antique 
statues, some from Pompeii and some from other places, and after as- 
cending the staircase reach the ancient collection of frescos. We were 
surprised at the quantity of them, as they occupy seven or eight large 
rooms ; they are admirably arranged, and, 
with the exception of painted vases and 
mosaics, they are almost the only speci- 
mens of ancient paintings of their time 
which have come down to us. They are 
highly prized by artists on this account, 
as many of them are our sole sources of 
information concerning the ancient styles 
and coloring, and the treatment of light 
and shade. They are admirable from an 
artistic point of view, and some of them 
equal the best work of the artists of the 
present time. Unfortunately, a consider- 
able portion of these pictures have faded 
a great deal since they have been exposed 
to the air. I am told that when excava- 
tions are made at Pompeii the colors of 
the paintings on the walls are as bright 
and fresh as when they were first laid 
on, although they have been buried out of 
sight beneath the mud of Yesuvius for 
nearly two thousand years. Yery soon 
after being exposed to the light and air 
the colors fade, and some of the finest of 
the Pompeian pictures have become al- 
most imperceptible. In view of this cir- 
cumstance the authorities in charge of 

the excavations have of late years adopted the plan of making copies 
of the mural paintings as soon as they are uncovered, obtaining the 
outlines by means of photographs. In this way excellent copies are 
made, so that the fading of the original work of art is not so great a 
calamity as it might be under other circumstances. 

"Two or three rooms are filled with mosaics, some of great rarity 
and beauty. Several rooms contain statuary, and some of the single 




STATUE OF ISIS. — [Museum of Naples.] 



330 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



ligures and groups rival in interest and value the statues of the Vatican. 
There is a room of inscriptions, of which there are more than two thou- 




HEAD OF THE HERMES OF PRAXITELES. 



sand, some in Latin, some in Greek, and some in Oscan, Avhich was 
formerly spoken in the peninsula, but is now as extinct as Latin. 

" The celebrated ' Farnese Bull ' is in one of the rooms of the gallery, 
and in the same room is the ' Farnese Hercules.' Both of these statues 
were found in Rome, and in a sad state of mutilation ; but a while after- 
wards some of the missing parts were found and put in their places. 
The portions still missing have been made up by modern sculptors, and 
the work is so skilfully done as to defy detection, except on close obser- 
vation." 



CHAPTEE XYIIL 

ANTIQUITLES IN THE MUSEUM.— PAPYRI FROM HERCULAN^EUM ; PROCESS OF UN- 
ROLLING AND READING THEM.— RECEIPTS OF A POMPEIAN BANKER.— BREAD 
BAKED EIGHTEEN HUNDRED YEARS AGO.— THE VILLA NAZIONALE. — GROTTO 
OF POZZUOLL— THE OLD TUNNEL AND THE NEW.— ANCIENT SYSTEM OF TUN- 
NELLING.— THE ROYAL PALACE —SAN CARLO THEATRE —OPERATIC PERFORM- 
ANCES.— HOW TWO AMERICANS SECURED SILENCE. — MINOR THEATRES OF 
NAPLES.— BURLESQUE. — PULCINELLO.— MARKETS OF NAPLES. — DONKEYS AND 
THEIR WORK.— HOW MACARONI IS MADE; VISITING A MACARONI FACTORY.— 
AN AMUSING INCIDENT.— ENVIRONS OF NAPLES.— POZZUOLI AND BAJA.— LAKE 
AVERNUS, SIBYL'S CAVE, NERO'S PRISON, NERO'S AMPHITHEATRE, ETC.— THE 
GUIDE'S TRICK.— TEMPLE OF SERAPIS.— SOLFATARA. 



COXCEEOTJSTG the visit of the 
party to the JSTational Museum, 
Frank continued as follows : 

"The museum contains an ad- 
mirable collection of bronzes and of 
coins, and collections of Egyptian, 
Greek, and other antiquities enough 
to interest a visitor for days and 
weeks together. There is a magnifi- 
cent gallery of paintings, though of 
course we paid little attention to it, 
after all that we had seen in Rome 
and Florence. Mary remarked that 
it is possible to have too much of a 
good thing, even though it consists 
of paintings by the greatest artists 
the world has ever known. 

"In one of the rooms we came 
to where several men were at work 
close to the window, endeavoring to 
unroll papyri or ancient books. All 
around in little compartments were 
rolls of paper, which looked as 




CANDELABRA AND VASE FROM POMPEII. 



332 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



though they had been charred by fire, and this was really the case. 
There were hundreds, perhaps thousands, of these rolls — I don't know 
really how many — and some ten or twelve of them were being examined. 
Bear in mind that they were charred, and required very delicate hand- 
ling to prevent their crumbling to pieces, and, as near as I can remember 
from looking at it, the process was about like this : 

"A spindle was passed through the centre of a roll ; the ends of the 
spindle rested on uprights a few inches high attached to the desks 




THE VILLA NAZIONALE. 



where the men w^ere at work. The surface of the roll was gently 
moistened by means of a small sponge, and then little hooks w^ere 
fastened to the edge of the paper roll, the hooks being attached to 
small cords which hung over a horizontal bar towards the window. The 
weight of the cords pulled very gently upon the paper and unrolled it y 
as fast as it was unrolled the writing was deciphered wherever possible. 
The process is very tedious, and we Avere told that thus far the return 
for the labor had been very light. IS^othing of great historical impor- 
tance had been discovered, the manuscripts consisting chiefly of treatises^ 
in Greek on music, rhetoric, and other matters. About three thousand 
of these papyri were discovered in a villa near Herculaneum, and some 
six or eight hundred have thus far been unrolled. 



RELICS OF POMPEII. 



333 



'^ In the same 
room they showed us 
some receipts for 
money advanced by 
a Pompeian banker, 
which were found in 
a box at Pompeii 
some years ago. In 
the next room we 
saw some articles of 
food and objects in 
common use at Pom- 
peii, carefully pre- 
served in glass-cases. 
One of the cases con- 
tained a bottle filled 
with oil — the very 
oil that was found in 
the bottle when it 
was unearthed. 

" One of the most 
interesting things in 
the collection is a 
case containing sev- 
eral loaves of bread 
that were found in 
an oven at Pompeii. 
One of them is 
stamped with the 
baker's name, and I 
made a note of it 
— 'Celer, slave of 
Q. Granius Yerus.' 
Mary thought that 
she would like very 
much to taste some of 
the bread, but after- 
wards concluded not 
to express her desire 
to the custodian. 





ENTRANCE OF THE GROTTO OP POSILIPPO. 



SS4: THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

" That individual would certainly have objected, as these ancient 
loaves are doubtless very precious and would sell for their weight in 
gold ; besides, I fear that any one attempting to eat them would not go 
far. Bread that was baked eighteen hundred years ago cannot be called 
fresh even by the wildest stretch of the imagination. 

" We will learn more about Pompeii when we go there ; for the 
present we will leave the museum and spend a little time out-of-doors. 
It is getting well along in the afternoon, and we shall visit the Yilla 
IN'azionaie, which is very interesting ; it was formerly called the Yilla 
Keale, and is the principal promenade of Naples. It is ornamented with 
trees and a good many pieces of sculpture. When we first saw the 
statues we thought they were ancient, but they turned out to be — at 
least, the majority — imitations of antique work, and I'm sorry to say 
some of them were rather poorly executed. But the poor quality of the 
statuary does not interfere with the other attractions of the place. 

" When we reached the villa a band of music was playing in the cen- 
tre, and there was a large crowd there of all classes of people, though 
the kind that we have seen around the water-front in the older parts of 
the city were not numerous. The villa contains several statues in honor 
of prominent men of the present time and a small temple to the memory 
of the poet Yirgil. There is another temple not far off, which is dedi- 
cated to the memory of Tasso, and near the end of the garden we saw 
a statue of Thalberg the pianist, who died at Naples. 

" In the middle of the villa is a large white building which contains 
an aquarium, and I don't think we have ever seen an institution of the 
kind which equals it. This aquarium was established about twenty 
years ago, for the purpose of making a thorough scientific investigation 
of the animal and vegetable inhabitants of the Mediterranean. The 
Itahan Government has given liberally towards the enterprise, and most 
of the European Governments have followed its example, as they realize 
the advantages of learning as much as possible concerning the marine 
life of this great sea. We spent an hour or more in the aquarium, but 
found the time altogether too short. We have voted unanimously that 
we shall visit the place again at the first opportunity. 

" When we left the Yilla Nazionale we decided to take a drive in 
the direction of tlie Grotto of Pozzuoli. There are two grottos bearing 
the name, one called 'The New' and the other 'The Old.' The new 
one is less than ten years of age, and is a tunnel bored through the hill 
of Posilippo for a railway extending to the region on the other side of 
the hill. Not far from this grotto our attention was called to the tomb 



THE TOMB OF VIRGIL. 



335 



of Yirgil, which has been mentioned heretofore ; but there is nothing 
specially interesting about the tomb, and no remains of Yirgil to be 
found in it. The fact is, there is no historical authority that this was 
really his tomb, but the belief is supported by tradition and the cer- 
tainty that he lived in this neighborhood. It is known that Yirgil had 
a villa on the Posilippo, and that he was buried somewhere within its 
grounds. There is an old record which said that the tomb was in a 




STAIRCASE IN THE EOYAL PALACE. 



good state of preservation in 1326, and then contained a marble urn 
with nine small pillars ; but there is no trace to be found of either urn 
or pillars, though diligent search has been made. 

" From the vicinity we had a fine view of the bay, and then contin. 
ued our drive through the Old Grotto of Pozzuoli. This is also an arti- 
ficial tunnel, and it well deserves to be called ' old,' as it was made by 
order of the Emperor Augustus, and is mentioned by a writer in the 
time of Nero as a very gloomy passageway through the hill. It is cer- 



336 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

tainly a very fine piece of engineering, and reminded me of what I have 
heard about the Hoosac Tunnel, in Massachusetts. When the Hoosac 
Tunnel was made, a shaft was sunk about midway from the two ends, 
and the engineers attacked the rock in both directions from the bottom 
of the shaft, so that work was carried on at four points instead of two, 
as in the ordinary process of making a tunnel. The performance was 
greatly praised at the time as a marvel of engineering skill. 

" Whether the engineers of the Hoosac Tunnel copied from the an- 
cients, or invented their plan of work with no knowledge that it had 
ever been tried before, I am unable to say, but they did exactly what 
was done by the engineers at Posilippo nineteen centuries ago. The con- 
struction of this tunnel was begun at two points equidistant from the 
ends as well as at each end. In mediaeval times it was supposed that the 
tunnel of Posilippo was the result of magic brought about by Yirgil, and 
there are yet several superstitions connected with the place. The arch 
of the tunnel is higher than usual, being about 90 feet at the entrance 
and varying in the interior from 20 to 50. It is nearly half a mile in 
length, and varies from 20 to 30 feet in width. Originally its floor was 
higher than at present; history says that the level of the road was 
lowered about the year 1440, and as we looked along the sides of the 
tunnel, which is lighted with gas, we could see the marks of the axles 
of wagons and chariots considerably above our heads. The indications 
are that the lowering of the floor of the tunnel was not done all at 
once, but at different periods — perhaps hundreds of years apart. 

" It was getting towards the end of the day when we returned to 
the city. Though we were weary enough to rest after dinner, we could 
not resist the temptation to a stroll, which included a visit to the Piazza 
del Plebiscito, which is the finest square in T^aples and one of its centres 
of activity. We were attracted there because we knew that the square 
would be crowded with people, as it was one of the evenings in which 
the band plays for the entertainment of the public. The Koyal Palace 
occupies one side of the square, or part of one side, and there are pal- 
aces, churches, and other buildings surrounding the open space. 

" The Ro3^al Palace is a very handsome building ; it is principally of 
modern construction, and stands on the site of the old palace, which 
was torn down in 1837. There are statues in the niches in front of the 
palace which represent the J^eapolitan dynasties of the last eight hun- 
dred years, beginning with Koger of Kormandy and ending with Victor 
Emmanuel, of the present reigning family. 

" It was past the hour for visiting the palace, and so we went there 



INTERIOR OF THE ROYAL PALACE. 



337 



on another day. It contains some fine paintings and statuary, but the 
object of art that attracted our attention more than anything else was 
the grand staircase, which is constructed entirely of white marble, and 
adorned with reliefs and statues. This staircase dates from the year 




SCENE FROM "PUNCH AND JUDY. 



1651, and escaped destruction at the time of the burning of the old 
building. Another very interesting work of art, if I may be permitted 
so to call it, is the garden terrace, which forms part of the Royal Pal- 
ace, and affords a magnificent view of the harbor with its shipping, and 
the islands and promontories that enclose it. 

" Close by the palace is the Teatro San Carlo, or San Carlo Theatre, 
which is a very large theatre or opera-house, and was the scene of the 
first production of the principal works of Eossini, Bellini, Donizetti, 
and other famous Italian composers. There was no performance of 
opera on the evening to which I refer, but there was one on another 
evening, and we attended it, securing a box for our party. 

" It did not seem to us that the music, either of the singers or of the 
orchestra, was anything more than ordinary, and the rest of the audi- 
ence appeared to have agreed with us, if we can judge by the noise that 
prevailed throughout the house. I have been told that the noisiest 



22 



338 



THE BOY TRxiVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



operatic audience in the world is the one at ]^aples, and am quite ready 
to believe it. Through the entire performance the people in the boxes 
and all through the body of the house were talking and paying little 
attention to the performance, unless I except those who were audibly 
humming the airs and accompanying the orchestra and performers. It 
is bad enough to be in a box at a performance of this sort, but it is 
worse to be in one of the orchestra stalls. The Italians seem to go to 
the opera to be seen and heard, and not to see and hear. . In this re- 
spect it is said that they have many imitators among the opera-goers of 
]^ew York and other American cities. 

" I heard yesterday a good story of two Americans who went to a 
performance of opera at the San Carlo. They were seated together, 
and all about them were Italians, who persisted 
in audibly humming the airs that were given 
by the orchestra and singers, and some of them 
accompanied their performances with a good 
deal of gesticulation. The Americans could 
hear very little of what was taking place on the 
stage, and so they determined to have 
some fun on their own account. Nei- 
ther could sing a note, their voices 
being about as musical as the braying 
of a donkey, but, nothing daunted, 
they proceeded to imitate their neigh- 
bors, humming and singing the airs as 
best, or worst, they could. 

"The Italians were dumfounded 
and stopped, whereupon the Ameri- 
cans became silent. But the former 
could not remain quiet for any 
length of time ; very soon they 
renewed their musical perform- 
ances, whereupon the Ameri- 
cans renewed their unmusical 
ones. The Italians twisted un- 
easily in their seats, and as- 
sumed an appearance of the most sublime contempt ; when the curtain 
fell at the end of the first act, all the neighbors of the representatives 
of the United States left their places, and did not return. For the 
rest of the evening the Americans were left in peace. 




PULCINELLO. 



ANTIQUITY OF "PUNCH AND JUDY." 339 

" The lower classes of the N'eapolitans are quite as fond of musical 
and theatrical performances of all kinds as are the upper classes, and if 
there is any difference between the two in this devotion to the stage it 
is in favor of the populace. All the grand operas produced at the San 
Carlo are burlesqued at the smaller houses, and the majority of these 
burlesques are very amusing. Those who have seen the opera of 
^ Aida' will remember that in the last act the two principal characters 
are sentenced to be immured alive in a tomb, whose entrance is walled 
up in the most impressive manner. In the burlesque of this scene the 
immurement takes place as in the genuine opera, and after the tomb 
has been closed upon them, the two victims of royal displeasure pro- 
ceed to make arrangements for prolonging their lives as much as possi- 
ble. One brings forward a basket, and the other a sack ; from basket 
and sack are produced provisions of various kinds — a ham, two or three 
strings of sausages, several loaves of bread, a small cheese, and half a 
dozen bottles of wine. It is needless to say that this comical turn of 
affairs never fails to elicit loud applause from the audience. 

" A great character on the popular E'eapolitan stage is that of Pul- 
oinello, who is said to be the original Punch in the ' Punch and Judy ' 
performance, so well known to English children. The image of Pulci- 
nello has been found in Pompeii and Herculaneum, and he is certainly 
a very ancient character. One of the small theatres of Naples was 
dedicated to him more than a hundred years ago, and he appears in 
nearly all the pieces produced there. His dress is usually a very baggy 
jacket of linen, and equally baggy trousers ; he wears a pointed cap, 
and a small black mask that conceals the upper part of his face. He is 
not unlike the Punch of the show, and has many bad qualities Tvith 
very few good ones. He is lazy, generally hungry, and occasionally 
thievish ; smart sayings are put into his mouth ; he is a coward and a 
braggart, a knave and a fool, and displays at times an abundance of 
good-nature which is offset by an equal abundance of malice. His pop- 
ularity is shown by the fact that whenever a play at this theatre is 
produced without Pulcinello in the cast, the patronage in the place is 
pretty sure to fall off, and sometimes very noticeably. 

" The price of admission to the theatres is gauged according to the 
character of the audience. At the San Carlo single seats vary from six 
to twelve francs. There are six tiers of boxes, thirty-two in each tier ; 
those of the first tier cost fifty-five francs ; for the second tier, sixty-five ; 
and for the third, forty. Many of the boxes are taken by the season by 
prominent residents, or by foreigners spending the winter in ]N"aples ; each 



340 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



box has a neat anteroom attached to it, in which visits are paid between 
the acts or while the curtain is up, and the etiquette of Naples permits 
fashionable calls to be made in this way. It is needless to say that the 
prices at the San Carlo are much higher than those at any other thea- 
tre. At the San Carlino (which is the diminutive of San Carlo), and 
similar establishments, the best places can be had for two or three 



If ' 




MAKING MACARONI. 



francs, while some of the cheapest cost no more than five soldi (cents). 
Some of the theatres give two performances in an evening, one at seven 
o'clock and another at half -past nine, the charge for tlite second per- 
formance being lower than that for the first." 

Our friends visited one of the markets of Naples, but were much dis- 
appointed, as they found it poorly supplied with provisions, and with 
very slight variety. Mrs. Bassett wondered why so large a city should 
have such a poor market, but the sharp-eyed Mary divined and gave 
the reason for the state of affairs they had found. 

" Don't you remember, mamma, that you called my attention to the 



A MACARONI FACTOKY. 341 

donkeys, which were going about the city with great loads of provi- 
sions, wood, coal, and kindred things on their backs ?" 

" Oh yes, I remember now," her mother replied. " I suppose they 
carry supplies to the people in the dwelling-houses." 

" Yes," responded Mary ; '' that is exactly what they do. I asked 
the guide about it, and he said that the markets of Naples went about 
on their feet for the most part, and did not stay in great buildings, like 
the markets of other cities. If all the donkeys (I mean the four-footed 
ones) should be taken out of Naples, there would be a good deal of suf- 
fering among the people — at least, for a day or two. Tenders of pro- 
visions, wine, and other articles of daily use go from house to house 
leading their donkeys, or followed by them, and in this way the people 
are supplied without the necessity of going to market themselves. Not 
only do they supply provisions, but they carry drinking-water, which is 
not furnished to the houses through pipes, as in most other cities, but is 
taken from the fountains at the street corners and in public squares. 
The more aristocratic venders put their wares in carts, and use their 
donkeys as draft animals, instead of piling great heaps of articles on 
their backs. Whichever way it is done the donkey is patient and sub- 
missive, but if he gives any thought to his occupation he must conclude 
that he has a pretty hard time of it." 

Mrs. Basset t suggested that she would like to see a macaroni fac- 
tory ; as Naples is the home of macaroni, she believed they ought to be 
able to see the making of that article. 

Frank consulted their guide, and a visit was made to one of those 
establishments. On their return Mrs. Bassett said she would not be 
quite so fond of macaroni for the future as she had been in the past, 
unless she could be assured that it was not made in the factory they had 
visited. Here is Mary's account of what they saw : 

" We drove outside of Naples a little way in the direction of Pom- 
peii, as we were told that most of the factories for making macaroni 
were in that direction. The proprietor of the establishment was very 
civil, and so were all his employes ; the civility of the former arose 
from the expectation of obtaining customers for his wares, while that 
of the latter was due to an equally keen expectation that we would 
distribute small coins among them previous to our departure, which 
we did. This is a custom of the country. 

'' I had expected to see a great deal of machinery in the factory, but 
ivas disappointed, as there was very little. They mix the flour with 
water, and knead it in a great trough until it is of the right consistency. 



342 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



Yery glutinous flour is needed for macaroni making, and I was told 
that the best flour for the purpose was made from Algerian wheat. 
Macaroni, spaghetti, and several other varieties have different names, 

but they are all made from the 
same sort of paste, the name 
being given according to the 
shape of the article produced. 
A little girl at the hotel says 
spaghetti is a solid stick, and 
macaroni is a hole with a stick 
around it. The shape of the 
product is given by means of 
a perforated iron plate at the 
bottom of a press. The dough 
is put in the box or trough of 
the press, and then a heavy 
wooden beam is brought down 
upon it ; this forces the dough 
out through the holes in the 
plate, and the toughness of the 
dough prevents its breaking. 
The macaroni is cut off in 
lengths of three or four feet, 
and then taken outside and hung 
upon frames, where it dries in the sun ; but sometimes, when the weather 
is bad, it is placed in a tight room and dried by artiflcial heat. 

" The disagreeable feature about macaroni is that there does not 
seem to be any attempt at cleanliness in the manufacturing process. 
The factory did not appear to have been swept for days or weeks, and 
the dirt lay thick on the floor and machinery. The workmen were very 
scantily clad, most of them being stripped to the waist ; the place was 
very hot ; the men were perspiring freely, and as they carried the mac- 
aroni around they flung it over their shoulders or across their arms in 
the most nonchalant manner. If they happened to drop any of it on 
the floor, they took it up and restored it to its place without the least 
hesitation, often without brushing off the dirt. 

" I quite agree with mamma that for the present I've lost my appe- 
tite for macaroni. As we were driving back to the city we passed 
another factory, where we saw something which gave us all a hearty 
laugh, and it was so funny that I must tell you about it. 




WAITING FOR MACARONI. 



HOW CHICKENS EAT MACARONI. 



343 



" A lot of macaroni had been hung on the frames to dry, as I have 
already described, and the lower rows of it were not more than a foot 
from the ground. Two boys were supposed to be watching it to keep 
away a flock of fowls that were hovering about ; but the boys were so 
intent upon playing with each other that the fowls were having things 
their own way. They secured good positions under the macaroni 
frames, and the leader of the flock set the example for the rest. He 
stood under a string of the soft macaroni, where he raised his head and 
opened his mouth so that the end of the stick w^as just within his beak. 
Then he jumped up — it seemed to me that he jumped at least eight 
inches from the 
ground — and let the 
macaroni slip down 
his throat ; as he 
reached the highest 
point he gave a 
judicious bite that 
severed the soft 
dough. His expert- 
ness evidently came 
from long practice, 
and we concluded 
that the rest of the 
flock had profited 
well by his example, 
as they were not 
long in satisfying 
their appetites for 
fresh macaroni." 

Interesting as 
Naples is to the 
visitor, its environs 
are far more inter- 
esting. Pompeii, Herculaneum, Sorrento, Capri, and Ischia are all 
attractive, and should not be omitted from the tourist's itinerary ; 
neither should Mount Vesuvius, with its stream of smoke always rising 
from its cone, and occasionally changing to fire. On the other side of 
N^aples is the Phlegrssan Plain, which has been the scene of volcanic 
activity from time immemorial, and contains ruins of great historical 
interest. Greek civilization first obtained its foothold in Italy at this 




THE LEADER OP THE FLOCK. 



344 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

point, and students have been made familiar with it through the poems 
of Homer and Yirgil. Frank and Fred were eager to visit the spot 
about which they had read when at school, and consequently the ex- 
cursion in this direction was the first of any importance that was made 
by our friends after their arrival at N'aples. 

" We took a carriage for the day," said Fred, " and a very interest- 
ing day it proved to be. We drove through the old Grotto of Posilippo, 
which you already know about, and then followed along the coast to 
Pozzuoli and Baja. At almost every step we found something of pres- 
ent or historical interest. Hot springs are not at all infrequent, and the 
first place where we stopped after emerging from the grotto is a water- 
ing and bathing resort which is patronized by the Neapolitans. A vis- 
itor can have the choice of sea-bathing or of baths at the hot springs, 
some of which contain salt and carbonic gas, and others iron and 
sulphur. We concluded that we had not sufficient time to patronize 
the bathing establishments, especially as we were well satisfied with the 
baths we obtained in the hotel, and so did not try them. 

" From Bagnoli, as this bathing-place is called, to Pozzuoli the road 
follows the coast quite closely, and we made no stop. When we reached 
the town we were assailed by guides and beggars, the latter being in 
greater number than in any other place we had hitherto visited. 

" Pozzuoh contains about fifteen thousand inhabitants, and Mrs. 
Bassett said she thought that at least fourteen thousand of them were 
engaged in begging and the other thousand had set up in business as 
guides. We selected k guide who had been recommended to us by some 
people at the hotel in Naples ; they employed him the day before, and 
found him very satisfactory. In our agreement with him we stipulated 
that a part of his duty would be to keep beggars away from us ; he 
certainly had a very active day of it, and although the beggars were 
his fellow-townsmen, and possibly some of them may have been mem- 
bers of his family, he made a vigorous use of his walking-stick without 
fear or favor. He suggested that if we would make presents to a few of 
the principal beggars the others might be induced to stay away, but 
this plan did not receive the prompt approval that he evidently desired. 
It is quite possible, however, that it might have been successful, as the 
beggars are said to be organized into a trades-union, and a contribution 
to their chiefs may have been regarded as a contribution for all. 

" The genius of our guide was shown at the various places where we 
stopped during our excursion. Before leaving Pozzuoli we invested in 
torches for lighting up the various underground places we were to visit, 



AN ENTERPRISING GUIDE. 



345 



the guide declaring that they were absolutely necessary, and the prices 
asked for them, which seemed to us very dear, were the customary rates 
which had been established. Whenever we approached one of the show- 
places, Tomasso (for that was our guide's name) whispered to us with 




TEMPLE OF PORTUNA VIRILIS. 



the most impressive and confidential air that the custodian would make 
an extortionate demand for the privilege of seeing what was in his 
€harge. ' He aska four franca,' the guide would say ; ' but you not 
give him ; you not give no more as two franca ; two franca enough ; 
justa right. Italiano bada man, verra.' 

" The first part of the statement was true ; the custodian demanded 
four francs and we offered two, which he refused. Then followed an 
excited dialogue between custodian and Tomasso, the latter taking our 
part with great vehemence, and leading us to believe that he was pro- 
tecting us against an intended fraud. Ultimately the two francs were 
accepted; we saw the show, whatever it was, and came away. This 
scene was repeated with slight variations at every place we visited. 



346 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



When at the close of the day we separated from Tomasso, we paid him 
the stipulated price for his services, and gave a handsome gratuity in 
addition for the zeal he had displayed in our behalf. 

" We had been too much interested in sight-seeing during the day 
to give the matter any attention ; but on our way home, while we 
were discussing the noble conduct of Tomasso, Frank suggested that 
we had been the victim of some admirable acting. A brief considera- 
tion led the rest of us to share Frank's opinion, and we found while 
talking the matter over with people at the hotel that it was correct. 
The fees that we paid by the guide's advice were in every instance 
double the customary fees that are paid at those places. It was all a 
neatly arranged job on the part of Tomasso and the custodians, and he 
has doubtless made a handsome profit from the services he has rendered 
to innocent strangers, as he can play the game every day. 
" But I am forgetting the sights of our excursion. 
" Pozzuoli is a quiet place and a very old one, as it was founded by 
the Greeks long before Komulus and Remus laid the foundations of the 

Imperial City. The Romans conquered it, 
and after the conquest it became the most 
commercial city of Italy, and the principal 
point of trade with Egypt and the East. St. 
Paul spent seven days at this place, and if you 
wish to read about it I refer you to the 
twenty - eighth chapter of the Acts of the 
Apostles, where the story is told. 

" The guide first showed us the harbor 
with the remains of the ancient pier which 
is mentioned by Seneca, Suetonius, and other 
ancient writers. Originally there were twenty- 
five buttresses which supported twenty-four arches. Sixteen of these 
remain, but only thirteen are visible above the water, the other three 
being covered by the sea, except at very low tide. 

'* From the harbor we went to the Serapeum, or Temple of Serapis, 
which consists of a square court enclosed by forty-eight granite and 
marble columns, and with some thirty or more side chambers connected 
with it. There is some dispute as to whether it was really the temple 
or a market-hall, but the probabilities are in favor of the temple theory. 
In the centre of the court there was a circular temple surrounded by 
sixteen Corinthian pillars of African marble, but the pillars are not 
here, having been transferred to the Royal Palace at Caserta. That 




COIN OF EMPEROR NERO. 



AN INTERESTING TOUR. 347 

the temple was a very old one there can be no question, as it bears 
two inscriptions which mention its restoration by Marcus Aurelius and 
Septimius Severus. The date of original erection is unknown. 

" Some parts of the ruins are under water, and the excavations that 
have been made here show that the spot where the temple stands has 
undergone several changes of level. The bases of the columns that 
surround the court show that for centuries they were under water, the 
ground having sunk so that the sea flowed in and covered the space. 
The lower part of the edifice was at one time ingulfed to the depth of 
thirteen feet, as indicated by the marks on the column ; afterwards the 
ground was covered, probably by an eruption of the neighboring vol- 
cano of Solfatara, which sent out a flood of mud similar to that which 
overwhelmed Pompeii. The place was excavated less than two hun- 
dred years ago, and since that time the ground seems to have been 
sinking steadily though slowly. There are salt springs in the neigh- 
borhood, and also some springs whence come fumes of sulphur. There 
are two other temples in the neighborhood, but they are not of much 
consequence compared w^th the Serapeum, and one's interest in them 
is considerably reduced by the fact that they are under water. Some 
ruins were pointed out which are said to on the site of Cicero's 
Academy that he established in imitation of Plato. 

"The most interesting and the most perfect of all the ruins of 
Pozzuoli is the Amphitheatre. The description which we have given 
of the Colosseum will answer in a general way for that of the Amphi- 
theatre, and need not be repeated. One interesting feature of it 
deserves mention, as we were able to see the dens for the wild beasts 
and the conduits for flooding the arena when naval fights were to be 
represented. You will remember that these places have been filled up 
in the Colosseum. They showed us the doors where the gladiators 
entered, and the air-holes and outlets of the dens of the animals. This 
is the spot where ISTero gave his celebrated gladiatorial combats when 
he received the King of Armenia. There is a chapel in the arena dedi- 
cated to St. Januarius, which records that the saint and his companions 
were thrown to the wild beasts in this arena ; but the animals refused 
to touch them, and they were put to death at Solfatara. 

" We visited Solfatara, the crater of a half extinct volcano, which 
is an oblong space enclosed by hills of pumice-stone, and seamed here 
and there with fissures, from which rise sulphurous gases. The guide 
stamped on the ground in various places to show that it was hollow, 
and we could not help thinking what would happen if it should give 



348 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



way. We did not, however, regard ourselves in great danger, as the 
volcano has not been in eruption for several centuries. 

" We passed near Lake Lucrinus, which was famous for its oysters 
in ancient times, and is still famous for those excellent bivalves. 
Then we saw the more celebrated Lake Avernus, which the ancients 
used to regard as the entrance to the infernal regions ; it was formerly 
supposed that no bird could fly across the lake and live, and that no 
fish could exist in its waters. Fred and I entered the Grotto of Aver- 



-.J^-m-x^-^-^^ 




ANCIENT ARCH. 



nus, which is a sloping passageway in the solid rock or earth, pre- 
ceded by a boy carrying a torch and followed b}^ our guide. The air 
Avas so warm that it threw us into a violent perspiration, and at the 
end of the passage a jet of hot gas rose from the fissure. 

" Our torch-bearer carried an ^gg in his hand, and placed it in the jet 
to be cooked ; the guide said it would only take five minutes to cook it, 
but we did not care to wait long enough for the performance, lest we 
might ourselves suffer the same fate. We gave the order to return, 
and in coming back we realized the difficulty of the ascent over the 
slippery ground beneath us. It is said that this grotto suggested to 
Yirgil the line, familiar to every student of Latin, beginning : 



'•"Facilis descensus Averni, sed revocare gradem, hie labor est.' 



WHERE NERO LIVED. 



349 



" We continued our excursion to Baja, which was the most famous 
and magnificent watering-place of antiquity, and was at the height of 
its splendor during the times of Cicero, Augustus, and Nero. It con- 
tains remains of the baths, villas, and temples of the Komans, and the 
guide showed us the location of the villa where JSTero planned the mur- 
der of his mother. Her tomb was near Baja, on the road to Misenum, 
but its exact locality cannot be determined, the place that is pointed 
out as her sepulchre being really the remains of a theatre. Baja is near 
Misenum, where a vast war-harbor was established during the time of 
the Roman emperors, and traces of its piers and docks are still visible. 

"We visited ]^ero's prison, Nero's tomb, and the Grotto of the 
Sibyl, where Nero and other emperors went to consult the oracles. 
The day was drawing to a close when we reached Pozzuoli on our 
return to the city ; by the time we stepped from the carriage at the 
door of our hotel the shadows were spreading over the city and the 
stars were coming out in the sky." 




CHIEF HALL OF ANCIENT ROMAN BATHS. — [Restored.] 



CHAPTER XIX. 

MOUNT VESUVIUS, POMPEII, AND HERCULANEUM. — VISIT TO THE RUINS OF HER- 
CULANEUM. — A CITY UNDER A CITY.— THE THEATRE AND OTHER BUILDINGS 
EXCAVATED.— VESUVIUS AND ITS ERUPTIONS.— ASCENDING THE VOLCANO.— 
WIRE-ROPE RAILWAY.— OLD METHODS CONTRASTED WITH THE PRESENT.— 
AT THE EDGE OF THE CRATER.— COOKING AN EGG BY VOLCANIC HEAT.— A 
WARM PROMENADE. —A RAPID DESCENT. —POMPEII; ITS HISTORY AND DE- 
STRUCTION; HOW ITS LOCATION WAS DISCOVERED.— DESCRIPTION OF STREETS 
AND HOUSES.— FOUNTAINS AT STREET CORNERS.— ELECTION PLACARDS.— SIGNS 
OF TRADESMEN.— SHOPS IN POMPEII.— CONSTRUCTION OF DWELLINGS AND THE 
WAY THE PEOPLE LIVED. 




WALL PAINTING FROM HERCULANEUM. 



A DAY was taken for an excursion to Mount Yesuvius, and with it 
was included a visit to the ruins of Herculaneum. As the carriage 
stopped in Eesina and Frank announced that they had arrived at Hercu- 
laneum, Mrs. Bassett remarked that it didn't look like so old a city as 
she had been told it was. Frank explained that Resina is a modern 
town, and is built on the lava streams which covered the ancient citv- 



DESTRUCTION OF POMPEII AND HERCULANEUM. 351 

"At the great eruption of Vesuvius in the year 79 Herculaneum 
and Pompeii were both destroyed," said Frank, " the former being over- 
whelmed from the lava of the volcano and the latter by the mud, ashes, 
cinders, and scoriae that flowed or fell from it." 

" I wish you would tell me the difference between them," said Mrs. 
Bassett ; "that is, the difference between the ways the two cities were 
destroyed, as I don't fully understand." 

" It is hardly necessary to describe mud," Frank replied, " as we all 
know what that is. The mud that partly overwhelmed Pompeii is dif- 
ferent from the mud of our streets. It was a very fine earth mixed 
with water, and also with ashes and pumice-stone ; during the centuries 
that have elapsed since the eruption the drying away of the water has 
left the city covered with a bank of earth which can be cut away with 
comparative ease. The lava which destroyed Herculaneum is a differ- 
ent substance. It is really melted rock like the slag of an iron-foundery, 
and flows out of the base of the mountain at the time of an eruption, 
coming down towards the sea in a stream like a very slowly moving 
river. It cools and hardens, and is then literally as hard as a stone — it 
is, in fact, a stone. Eock is not a good conductor of heat, and the in- 
terior of a lava bed remains in a heated condition for a long time, as we 
shall see when we ascend Vesuvius. The lava rock is porous, and some- 
times there are considerable cavities in it ; it is useful for building pur- 
poses Avhen sufficiently solid to cut in blocks, but cannot in any way be 
considered a valuable stone. Granite is much better." 

"Why! they have been showing us in the shops of J^aples jewelry 
made of lava — at least, they said it was." 

" Yes, I know," said Frank ; " they call it lava, but it is not lava at 
all. The so-called lava ornaments are made of a kind of calcareous tufa, 
which is found at the base of Mount Vesuvius and in this vicinity ; it is 
of volcanic origin, but is not in any way lava as we understand it. Hercu- 
laneum was a small city, very prettily situated on the shore, and a favor- 
ite site for Koman villas, and was totally destroyed by the lava stream 
that flowed over it. A century or so later a village was established 
right over the spot, and this was destroyed in the same way as Hercu- 
laneum. These and later eruptions altered the whole line of the coast 
at this point, and increased the depth of ashes and lava to about eighty 
feet, so that where we now stand in the streets of Resina, which is a 
modern city, Herculaneum is eighty feet below us." 

Mrs. Bassett called attention to a doorway with the inscription above 
it, " Scavi di Ercolane," and asked what it was. 



352 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



" That is the entrance to the excavations," said Frank, as he led the 
way through the door, which was standing open. 

Tickets were bought at the office, as at the entrance to a theatre, the 
admission being two francs for each member of the party. Then a 
guide carrying a lantern took them down a flight of steps to the ancient 
theatre, which was lighted up with a few candles carried by the guide. 
It was a small place, as it could not accommodate more than three 
thousand spectators ; so many pillars have been left to sustain the roof 
that it is not easy for the majority of visitors to make out the form of 
the theatre ; but there is no doubt of its genuineness. 

In addition to the theatre, several other buildings have been exca- 
vated, and a street 
has been revealed, 
with a portion of a 
large private house 
and several shops. 
The houses and the 
decorations in them 
are very much like 
those of Pompeii; 
some of the houses 
are three stories in 
height and very 
well preserved. 

The site of Her- 
culaneum was 
unknown for cen- 
turies, and it was 
discovered in 1799, during the digging of a well. The diggers came upon 
the theatre which has just been mentioned, and found a number of 
statues ; the statues were carefully preserved, some of them being now 
in the museum at l^aples, and the rest in various museums of Europe. 
The attempt to find water was given up, and nothing more was done for 
twenty years; at different times since then excavations have been made, 
but the expense of delving into the hard rock and removing it is so 
great that no considerable portion of the city has been uncovered. A 
great many statues, busts, and wall paintings have been found here, the 
most of which have been carried to the National Museum in Naples, 
where they were carefully preserved. 

When the visit to Herculaneum was concluded, our friends proceeded 




ROMAN WAR-CHARIOT. 



354 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

on their way to Vesuvius. The excursion up the volcano is not at all 
difficult at the present time ; down to 1880 it was a fatiguing or else an 
expensive affair, as the visitor was obhged to ascend the cone on foot or 
be carried up by porters. Carriages took him from ^^aples or from the 

railway station to 
the end of the car- 
riage road, whence 
a ride upon horses 
or donkeys, or a 
tiresome walk, was 
necessary to reach 
the foot of the cone, 
and then began the 
great fatigue of the 
ascent. It was a 
hard journey, and 
many a traveller 
abandoned it before 
reaching the top. 
The perpendicular 
height of the cone 
is not far from one 
thousand feet, and 
the ascent is at an 
angle of about thir- 
ty-five degrees. To 
step from stone to 
stone and occasion- 
ally slip in the ashes 
was by no means 
agreeable, and the 
ride in a chair car- 
ried by porters, 
though less fatigu- 
ing, possessed feat- 
ures that were try- 
ing to nervous persons. All this is obviated at present, as there is a 
wh-e-rope railway extending up the cone to within about one hundred 
and fifty yards of the mouth of the crater, and carriages take the trav- 
eller to the starting-point of this railway. 




ERUPTION OF VESUVIUS IN 1737. 



ASCENDING VESUVIUS. 355 

Here is what Frank says of this part of the excursion : 

" We had secured our tickets for the railway, so that we had no 
trouble, the time of our arrival having been arranged the evening 
before. The railway carriages are small affairs, having only twelve 
seats each, and the number twelve seems to be a favorite one, as the 
time of the ascent or descent when the machinery is working smoothly 
is twelve minutes. From various points of the ascent, from Kesina to 
the foot of the railway, we had fine views of J^aples and its bay, together 
with the islands of Capri and Ischia, and the promontories of Sorrento 
and Baja jutting into the sea. 

" We crossed some of the ancient lava beds, and passed close to the 
stream of lava which was thrown out at the latest eruption. It has 
cooled on the surface sufficiently to allow one to walk upon it, but is 
still very warm on the outside, while the inside is decidedly hot. At one 
point a man thrust a long stick into a crevice in the lava, held it there 
for a minute or so, and then drew it out with the end on fire. It takes 
years for one of these masses of lava to cool, the time depending upon 
the depth of the stream and also upon its width. 

" It is a curious circumstance that the people of this region seem to 
have no hesitation at building over these lava streams or beds. They 
know that Herculaneum was destroyed by the lava, and that other 
towns and villages had been swept out of existence in the same way ; 
but after an eruption is over they come back and settle in the immediate 
neighborhood, and when the lava is cooled sufficiently they build their 
houses upon it, as though there was no possibility that the mountain 
would ever again be in a dangerous condition. 

" As you look at the mountain from any prominent point in 
Naples the dark streams of lava are distinctly visible. I^one of them 
in recent centuries have reached the sea like the one which over- 
whelmed Herculaneum, but there is no telling what may happen in 
the future. At the time of the great eruption of 1872 many residents 
of Naples were so much alarmed at the performance of the volcano 
that they fled from the place. Earthquakes were of frequent occur- 
rence at that time, and as the clouds of ashes poured from the volcano 
and were swept by the wind in the direction of the city, they fell in 
the streets to a depth of several inches. Let there come a great erup- 
tion with an outpour of ashes, and a strong wind blowing in the direc- 
tion of Naples, the city would run the risk of being overwhelmed, like 
the cities that were buried at the beginning of the Christian era. 

" From the railway carriage as w^e ascended we had a magnificent 



356 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

view, but of course it did not last long ; and, besides, we were more or 
less occupied with our unusual mode of conveyance. When we reached 
the top the guides employed by the railway took us in charge, and 
recommended that we engage portatinas^ or chairs, for the ladies of our 
party, which we did without delay. 

''Although the distance is not great from the end of the railway 
to the crater the walk is very fatiguing, and, furthermore, the walk 
around the crater, or the portions of it that are visited, is by no means 
an easy affair, even for one who is young and vigorous. 

" We were annoyed somewhat by the persistence of guides and 
beggars, but less so than was the case before the building of the rail- 
way. It occurred to me that the Itahans living in the neighborhood 
of the mountain cannot be called lazy people, when they are ready to 
climb the steep cone of Vesuvius on the mere chance of earning a little 
money by serving or vexing the travellers who go there for the sake 
of the sight. Some of them had brought up baskets filled with wine 
and provisions which they hoped to sell, and there was so much com- 
petition among them that the prices they asked were not at all dear. 
Excellent wine is made from the vineyards on the slopes of Yesuvius. 
The ashes thrown out by the volcano cause the vines to grow very 
luxuriantly, and I am told that there is no better wine-growing region 
in Italy than around this mountain. This circumstance accounts for 

the readiness of the people to settle 
where they may be overwhelmed by 
an eruption at any time. 

" We got to the crater all right, 
and when we reached its edge were 
nearly stifled by the fumes of sul- 
phur that rose from it. The crater 
of the volcano changes its form after 

PORTABLE FIREPLACE, HERCULANEUM. ^^^^^ ^^^^^ erUptiOU. JuSt UOW YC- 

suvius is not at all active ; there is a 
thin stream of smoke and steam constantly rising from it, but it is not 
at all in a state of eruption or anywhere near it. We went around to 
the windward side of the crater, in order that the sulphur fumes might 
be bloAvn from us rather than in our direction, but there were little 
eddies in the wind which caused us to get a good deal more of the smell 
than we wanted, in spite of all efforts to avoid it. 

" The guide proposed to take us where we could see fresh molten 
lava. Fred and I accompanied him, but mamma and Mary concluded 




DESCENDING INTO THE CRATER. 357 

to remain where they were. No doubt Mary would have been willing 
to go, but she felt that she ought to stay with mamma, who did not 
want to enter the crater. We descended into the crater perhaps two 
hundred feet from the rim; the path was not particularly agreeable 




LANDSCAPE-PAINTING FROM POMPEII. 



and it is not absolutely safe, though the danger is very slight if the 
visitor is careful and obeys the guide in everything. 

"We suffered considerable inconvenience from the sulphur fumes 
and clouds of steamy smoke, but observed implicitly the directions of 



358 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

the guide, and felt that we were all right. The lava was not in an 
actual state of ebullition, though it was very hot and of the consistency 
of putty. There were crevices in it whence streams of hot air poured 
steadily, and at one of these crevices the guide placed an egg, which was 
very soon cooked thoroughly. At another crevice he held a piece of 
paper, which ignited as though it had been put in the flame of a candle. 

"While we were there a party of three or four gentlemen with a 
guide came up, and proceeded to light their cigars at the volcano. The 
usual way of performing this feat is to set a piece of paper on fire in 
the manner I described, and then hold it to the cigar; but a light can be 
obtained by placing the end of the cigar in one of the crevices whence 
the hot air issues and lea^^ng it to take fire. 

" We felt the ground very hot under our feet, and did not care to 
remain long. The crater of the volcano is much larger than I had ex- 
pected to find it, judging from the appearance of Vesuvius as one 
looks at it from Naples. The guide said that to go entirely around it 
would involve a walk of fully two miles, and as the path is a very 
difficult one we did not venture upon it. This may seem a great dis- 
tance, but it is really a small one when compared with some of the great 
volcanoes in other parts of the world. The crater of Mount ^tna is 
twice or three times as large as that of Vesuvius, and the crater of Ki- 
lauea, in the Sandwich Islands, is no less than sixteen miles in circum- 
ference, and it has craters within craters. If you want to know more 
about it I suggest that you read Chapter II. of The Boy Travellers in 
Australasia, which describes our visit there. 

" We spent an hour or more on the summit of Vesuvius, looking at 
the crater and studying the peculiarities of the volcano, and then came 
down again. Mamma and Mary descended the same way we went up — 
that is, by the railway train, accompanying some other ladies who 
ascended the same time we did. Fred and I, with half a dozen others, 
walked — or, rather, ran — down the mountain, but not in the vicinity of 
the railway track. The descent is made in a very few minutes through 
the ashes which the volcano has thrown out. Volcanic ashes are not 
like ordinary coal or wood ashes, but more like fine gravel ; if you can 
imagine the ashes that come from your furnace done up into little pel- 
lets from the size of a pin-head up to that of a chestnut you will have 
an idea of the material through which we walked on our descent. 

"From the top to the bottom of the cone these ashes lie many feet 
in thickness ; it looks very dangerous before you start, but really there 
is no danger at all. You stand up and walk ; that's all you do, being 



A RAPID DESCENT. 



359 



careful not to lean forward — stand erect and move your feet. If you 
happen to slip down it's of no consequence, as the soft ashes receive you 
gently ; but it is not as easy to slip down as you might think. You go 
three or four yards at every step. Your feet sink into the ashes above 
the ankles, and after the first few steps you think what jolly fun it 
would be to have a romp on the side of Vesuvius, playing tag and 
chasing one another all around. It takes about an hour and a half for 
a good pedestrian to ascend the cone of Vesuvius from the base to the 
top, but it doesn't take more than 
ten minutes to come down, and one 
could easily do it in half that time. 

" This is a good place to tell 
something about the performances 
of Vesuvius in times past, but I will 
not detain you long. The height of 
the mountain varies according to 
the different effects of the eruptions, 
and its shape changes from time to 
time from the same cause. In 1845 
the summit of the mountain was 
thirty-nine hundred feet above the 
sea-level. Twenty years afterwards 
it was very nearly forty -three hun- 
dred feet. The eruption of 1872 re- 
duced it somewhat, but since then 
it has increased. Perhaps before 
these lines that I am writing see the 
light there may be another erup- 
tion, and the height and shape will 
again be changed. Vesuvius has 
been known as an active volcano 
from very ancient times. The ge- 
ographer Strabo, who was born 
sixty years before the Christian 

era, speaks of it as though it had not been active for a long while. 
Here is what he says in describing his visit to the volcanic mountain : 

" ' Mount Vesuvius is covered with beautiful meadows, with the excep- 
tion of the summit. The latter is for the most part level, but quite 
sterile ; for it has an appearance like ashes, and shows rugged rocks of 
sooty consistency and color, as if they had been consumed by fire. 




CERES. — [Pompeian wall-painting.] 



360 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

One might conclude from this that the mountain had once burned, and 
possessed fiery abysses, and had become extinguished when the mate- 
rial was spent. And just from this cause its fertility may arise, as in 
the case of Catania the eruption of ashes from ^tna renders it so 
productive of wine.' 

" This paragraph must have been written not far from the begin- 
ning of our era. In the year a.d. 63 there was a great earthquake and 
eruption which destroyed much of the prosperous region around there, 
and seriously damaged Herculaneum and Pompeii. After this there 
were earthquakes and eruptions every year or tw^o until August 2-1:, 
79, when the first recorded earthquake took place, and devastated 
the country for a considerable distance around. This was the eruption 
that destroyed Pompeii, Herculaneum, and other towns, and converted 
the formerly smiling land into an area of desolation. 

" The naturalist Pliny, who was then in command of the section of 
the Koman fleet at Misenum, perished during that eruption ; he had 
ventured too near the scene of desolation, partly as an observer and 
partly to help the people on shore, and was suffocated by fumes of 
sulphur and overwhelmed by the ashes. The description that his 
nephew, the younger Piiny, gave in letters to his friend, the historian 
Tacitus, might answer as a description of an eruption of the present 
time. He tells of the premonitory earthquakes, and great clouds of 
steam that overwhelmed the sky, turning day into night, the agitation 
of the sea, the lightning storms, the emission of fire and ashes, the river 
of lava that flowed down towards the sea, and the terror of all the 
people, who supposed that the end of the world had come. 

" The next eruption took place in the year 203, and the next great 
one in 472, when the showers of ashes were carried by the \vinds as 
far as Constantinople. Nine great eruptions are on record dow^n to 
1500, and from that year to the present time there have been no fewer 
than fifty, not counting the small ones. 

" Eruptions do not take place at regular intervals ; sometimes they 
occur every few years, and at others long periods pass without any 
disturbance. From 1500 to 1631 Vesuvius was in a quiet state ; it was 
covered with trees and bushes to the very summit, and the crater -was 
used as a grazing place for cattle. A terrible eruption came in Decem- 
ber, 1631, and the cloud of smoke and ashes overspread a considerable 
part of southern Italy. Heavy stones were thrown up by the mount- 
ain, some of them falling a distance of fifteen miles away. One stone 
that was thrown several miles weighed twenty -five tons, and many 



THE ERUPTION OF 1872. 



361 



other great masses were upheaved in a similar way. One eruption in 
1707 lasted from May to August, and the quantities of ashes that fell 
in iS'aples filled the street to a depth of several feet. 

"The greatest eruption of late years was in 1872, when the lava 
burst out in several places, and one stream came so suddenly that 
it overwhelmed and destroyed some twenty or more people in a crowd 
of spectators who were watching the effect and had gone too near. 




WALL PAINTING, POMPEII. 



Others were injured by the falling stones, and the red-hot stones 
thrown out with the column of smoke and steam were carried to a 
height of 4000 feet! Clouds of ashes were carried upward twice that 
distance, and borne by the wind to a distance of 140 miles. 

" There is a popular idea that a volcano is in eruption only when 
columns of smoke and stones are thrown up, and the streams of lava 
burst from the sides. Scientifically a volcano is in eruption when the 



362 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



masses of lava begin to form inside. How they are caused no one can 
say exactly, but it is thought that it is in consequence of the burning 
mass of the interior of the earth coming in contact with the waters of 
the ocean, nearly all the active volcanoes of the world being near the 
sea, and some rising directly from it. 

" The earthquakes that precede an eruption are occasioned by the 
vapors and gases formed in the earth endeavoring to seek an outlet. 
The mass of lava in the interior steadily increases day by day, and fills 
up the base of the mountain. Before the lava can rise sufficiently high 

to flow over the rim of the 
crater, its pressure is so 
great that it bursts through 
the sides, and when the lava 
thus finds its exit, the re- 
lease of the gases beneath it 
causes the clouds of smoke 
and steam to ascend, and 
they rise with such force as 
to carry with them stones 
and ashes, and not infre- 
quently masses of molten 
lava heated to redness. 

" Sometimes an eruption 
may be weeks or months 
under way before the mount- 
ain breaks out. This cir- 
cumstance is immediately 
heralded all over the world 
by hotel-keepers and others 
interested in drawing strangers to INaples. A gentleman tells me that 
in the spring of 1876 he came to E^aples on the announcement of an 
eruption, and remained here for five weeks, waiting for the last act in 
the performance. At the end of that time he was obliged to leave, on 
account of business ; the bursting of the lava and attendant explosions 
did not take place for a month after his departure, and then the per- 
formance was comparatively small and hardly worth seeing. 

" I wish to correct another erroneous impression which is very gen- 
eral. When you see a colored picture representing a vast column of 
fire rising from the crater of Vesuvius or some other volcano, do not 
suppose that it is really a column of fire that you see. It is the re- 




ACHILLES DELIVERING UP BRISEIS, POMPEII. 



VISITING POMPEII. 



363 



flection of the molten lava in the interior of the crater on the clouds 
of vapor and ashes in the sky — just as you sometimes see at night the 
clouds reflecting fires on the earth far below. There is no column of 
fire rising from the volcano as far as I am able to ascertain, and there 
never was anything of the kind in the most violent eruptions that have 
taken place, either here or at other volcanoes.'- 

A visit to Pompeii naturally followed the excursion to Vesuvius ; in 
fact, the party made two visits to the old city, going once by the car- 
riage road and once by the railway. The distance from Naples is 
about fifteen miles. The carriage road follows the coast, passes through 
several towns and villages, and is bordered here and there by handsome 
villas, smiling vineyards, busy factories, and persistent beggars. ITu- 
merous macaroni factories were passed, and vast quantities of the arti- 
cle of which the Neapolitans are so fond were hung out to dry. The 
drive is an interesting one, and if the traveller is not pressed for 
time the journey is to be recommended in preference to that by rail- 
way. There are two small hotels at Pompeii, so that if one wishes to 
make a prolonged stay he has the opportunity to do so. 

On arriving at the entrance gates our friends found the arrange- 
ments riot unlike those of Herculaneum ; they paid an admission-fee of 
two francs each, and a guide was as- 
signed to them. The Government has 
made the most rigid rules regarding 
the guides, Avho are forbidden, under 
penalty of dismissal, to receive fees 
from visitors, their services being paid 
out of the entrance-fees taken at the 
gate. When a guide is assigned to a 
party he is required to accompany 
them as long as they choose to stay 
in the place between sunrise and sun- 
set ; in case of incivility a complaint 
addressed to the inspector in charge 
of the office, or to the director of the 
museum at Naples, will receive the 
most prompt and vigorous attention. 

Frank having given quite an interesting account of the visit to 
Vesuvius, it naturally became the duty of Fred to tell about what they 
saw in Pompeii. Here is what he wrote in his journal on this subject : 

" If any one has an impression that Pompeii was a great city like 




LAMP AND STAND. 



364 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

Eome or Carthage he has made a huge mistake, as it was nothing more 
than a provincial town with a population of not much over twenty 
thousand. Exactly when it was founded nobody knows, but the Greek 
temple and the shape of the walls show that it was a very ancient 
place. It had quite an extensive commerce, and before the eruption 
it stood upon the sea ; now it is fully a mile away from it. 

" Frank has told you in his account of Vesuvius about the destruc- 
tion of Pompeii on August 24, a.d. 79. Although the city was destroyed, 
it is not believed that more than two thousand of its inhabitants act- 
ually perished on that day. The mud and ashes and fragments of pum- 
ice-stone with which the city was covered form a mass about twenty 
feet thick, though it is known that some of it is the result of later erup- 
tions. Numerous excavations were made in the years immediately fol- 
lowing the destruction of the city, in order to recover valuables that 
were buried there. For two or three centuries these searches went on, 
and not only valuables were removed, but many parts of the temples 
and other buildings, and then the place was considered to contain noth- 
ing of special value, and was abandoned. 

" During the Middle Ages the location of Pompeii was entirely un- 
known, and its name practically disappeared from history. The discov- 
ery of the ruins was made in 1748 by a peasant Avho was digging a well. 
He found some statues and bronze utensils, which were shown to the 
King, and His Majesty caused excavations to be made. From that time 
to the present excavations have been continued at intervals ; from eighty 
to one hundred men are now constantly employed, and sometimes sev- 
eral hundred are engaged. The fees received from visitors are devoted 
to maintaining the guides and police and to carrying on the excava- 
tions, and it is estimated that if the work continues at the present rate 
the town will be completely excavated by the year 1950. About one- 
half of it has now been brought to light, and the other half remains 
buried, just as it has been for centuries. 

" It was difficult to realize, as we walked about Pompeii, that we 
were in a city of eighteen hundred years ago. The streets are straiglit 
and narrow, the widest of them rarely exceeding twenty-five feet and 
the narrower ones twelve or fourteen feet ; they are paved with large 
blocks of lava stone, and the pavement is well laid down. At most 
places where the streets intersect there are stepping-stones — that is, 
lines of stones raised above the rest of the pavement, and intended to 
facilitate the crossing of the streets by pedestrians in wet weather. In 
many places there are deep ruts which were worn by the wheels of 




2Jma »^,r 



■llll 



366 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 




wagons. The horses' hoofs have made impressions on the stepping- 
stones, and the indications are that they were generally driven singly, 
and rarely in pairs, the latter being considered luxuries. 

"A very noticeable feature is the abundance of fountains in Pompeii, 
not only in the streets but in the houses. All houses that were at all 
costly, and many of the humbler ones, had fount- 
ains in the principal courts, and the fountain was 
almost always surrounded by a basin which fur- 
nished facilities for a bath. Public and private 
baths were numerous. The modern Italians might 
learn a lesson from the ancient inhabitants of the 
country in the matter of water supply, and also in 
the use of water after it has been supplied. 

'' At many of the street corners of Pompeii the ^^^^' 

fountains were in the shape of upright posts deco- 
rated with the head of a god, a mask, or some other ornament. In some 
cases the water ran into a drinking-trough, where horses might quench 
their thirst ; otherwise it ran into the gutter at the edge of the sidewalk. 
These street fountains were of the right height to enable the pedestrian 
to drink from them, and we observed that some of them had been con- 
siderably worn away by the many thousands of lips which 
had been pressed against the orifice whence the water 
flowed. A man stopping to drink in this way would natu- 
rally place one hand on the top of the upright pillar, and the 
top of the pillar was thus worn away to the same degree as 
the stone at the point of issue. 

" There are many signs along the streets, and it Avould 
appear from some of them that an election was about to 
take place at the time of the eruption. The signs or pla- 
cards were painted in red letters on the walls of the build- 
ings, and recommended particular individuals for the offices 
of asdile or duumvir. Then there are numerous signs of 
grocers, bakers, wine-dealers, butchers, and other tradesmen. 
GOLD PIN. gQj^Q of the walls are covered with rough sketches evident- 
ly done by the small boy of the period, in just the same way 
that the small boy of the present day delights in making pictures on 
blank walls or adding to the attractions of circus posters. 

" The houses are built of concrete or brick (concrete, as you know, is 
made of small stones mixed with cement), and sometimes the corners of 
the houses are of blocks of stone. Some houses are built entirely of 




POMPEIAN HOUSES AND STREETS. 367 

stone blocks, but their number is not large. It is supposed that the 
greater part of the concrete buildings were erected between the years 
63 and 79, the dates respectively of the great earthquake and of the 
city's destruction. According to history, the majority of the inhabitants 
fled at the time of the earthquake, the city being very seriously dam- 
aged ; they afterwards returned, and restored such of their buildings as 
would bear restoration, or erected new ones in place of those that had 
been quite destroyed. In many of the houses there are staircases, which 
shows that they must have had a second story, and perhaps a third 
one. All the upper portions of the houses were destroyed by the red- 
hot scoriae that came out of the volcano at the time of the eruption. 
E'o, I am wrong; there was one house whose second story is preserved. 
" Many of the dwelling-houses had rows of shops next to the street. 
These were owned by the proprietors of the houses and rented to mer- 
chants, just as we find the shops in many buildings of E'aples and other 
Italian cities at the present day. Where the shops were rented they 
had no connection whatever with the dwelling portion of the house ; 
they were entirely open to the street, and closed at night by means of 
large wooden doors. Many of the shop tables covered with marble 
stand in their original places, and some of them contain earthen jars 
for holding wine, oil, and other liquids. Sometimes there is a second 
room back of the shop, which may have been occupied by the tenant 
and his family, or used perhaps as an inner office for the entertainment 
of customers. There were restaurants for the sale of food, just like the 
restaurants of to-day, and in these establishments the second room was 
no doubt the place where customers were served. Where there were no 
shops the part of the house fronting the street was generally a blank 
wall, with a few narrow openings to admit light and air. The streets 
of Pompeii had sidewalks, which is more than can be said of many of 
the streets of E'aples, Florence, and other Italian cities ; the sideAvalks 
were narrow, and when a person in a house was about to open a door, 
it was necessary for him to give a shout of warning lest a passing 
pedestrian might run against it." 



CHAPTEE XX. 

HOUSES OF RICH AND POOR.— DESCRIPTION OF A RICH MAN'S DWELLING.— THE 
HOUSE OF PANSA AND ITS ORNAMENTS.— A GLASS WINDOW; OTHER USES 
OF GLASS.— "SALVE!"— AN AMERICAN'S MISTAKE.— CUSTOM-HOUSE.— HOUSE 
OF THE SURGEONS.— MEDICAL AND SURGICAL INSTRUMENTS.— THE STREET 
OF TOMBS. — THE ROMAN SENTINEL AND HIS STORY. — DIOMEDES' HOUSE; 
SKELETONS IN HIS CELLAR.— HOW CASTS OF BODIES ARE MADE.— AN OFFI- 
CIAL'S INGENUITY.— WALL PAINTINGS; DESCRIPTION OF SOME OF THEM.— 
HOUSE OF THE TRAGIC POET.—" BEWARE OF THE DOG !"— ISLAND OF CAPRI, 
AND A VISIT TO IT.— TIBERIUS AND HIS PALACE.— A CHEAP PLACE TO LIVE.— 
CAPRI AND ANACAPRL— THE BLUE GROTTO.— A CURIOUS SIGHT.— TRICKS 
OF THE BOATMEN. — OTHER GROTTOS. — CORAL FISHING.— WOMEN OF CAPRI 
AND THEIR OCCUPATIONS. 



" '"P^IIERE is great variety in the dwelling-houses of Pompeii," Fred 

J- continued, " some of them being very large, and others of modest 

size. It is evident that every man built and fitted up his house in the 

way he could best af- 



ford; a very rich man 
had a palace, and a poor 
man occupied quarters 
best suited to the con- 
dition of his purse. The 
Pompeian houses of the 
well-to-do middle class 
of people were entered 
from the street by a 
narrow passage or ves- 
tibule which leads to 
the court they call the 
atrium. The atrium was 
surrounded by a covered 
passage with a reservoir for rain-water in the centre ; to supply this 
reservoir the roof of the building was made to slope inward, so that 
the rain from the roof would be carried to the reservoir or com- 




PICTURE IN THE HOUSE OF PANSA. 



POMPEIAN HOMES. 



369 



pluvium, and there was an opening in the centre of the roof for the 
admission of light and air to the courts and rooms that adjoined the 
atrium. Beyond the atrium is a large apartment which opens into 
what is called the tablinum, or dining-room. 

" The front part of the house which I have described w^as like the 
reception-room or parlor of the modern house in Europe and America. 
It was where the master and his family held their relations with the 
outer world, the place where visitors were received, and where the mas- 
ter transacted business and met his friends. The rest of the house was 




ATRIUM IN THE HOUSE OF PANSA. 



devoted entirely to the use of the family. The centre of the private 
portion of the house also consisted of an open court enclosed by col- 
umns, the middle of it being laid out as a garden, with a fountain or 
perhaps a fish-pond in the centre. Around and beyond this inner court 
were the rooms of the members of the family, the sleeping and eating 
rooms, the kitchen, slaves' rooms, store places, and the like. The family 
dwelt almost exclusively on the ground-floor, the upper floor or floors 
being principally for the servants or slaves. 

" The sitting-room, or the place where the family spent the greater 
part of its time, was in the open courts and in the apartments which 
were nearly always very small. The ideas of the Pompeians about 



24 



370 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



sleeping-rooms were that any place was good enough to sleep in. Their 
beds were narrow bunks of solid masonry on which mattresses were 
placed, and it is quite possible that poor people slept on the bare stone 
without any intervening mattress whatever. It seemed to us that this 
feature of a Pompeian house was not at all an agreeable one ; but if the 
people liked it, it is none of our business. 

" We thought it a little odd that the Avealthy residents of Pompeii 
did not have glass windows for their houses. The Pompeians made 
bottles and many other things out of glass, and they knew the use of 
window-glass, as there is a window, two feet and a half by three, in one 
of the public baths, which had panes of glass set in a bronze frame. 
They must have known the advantages of glass for windows ; no doubt 
it was a very costly material, and could only be afforded by the wealthy ; 
but why the wealthy did not have it is a mystery. 

" The finest of the Pompeian houses is the house of Pansa, which 
occupies an entire block three hundred and nineteen feet long and one 

hundred and twenty -four 
feet broad. I ought to 
have explained before this 
that the blocks, or squares, 
in Pompeii are very small ; 
perhaps this is because 
Pompeii was a small city. 
On the same principle a 
famous ]S'ew Yorker who 
had an impediment in his 
speech explained once that 
he stammered worse in New 
York than in Baltimore, 
because Xew York was a 
much bigger place. 

" The house of Pansa 
has sixteen shops facing 
two of the streets, and on 
the inside is the dwelling. On the threshold of the entrance was 
found a mosaic with the greeting ' Salve !' (Welcome !) ; this is probably 
the house which a practical American supposed was devoted to the sale 
of ointments and salves, in consequence of the sign. 

" It would take too long for me to tell all about what we saw in 
Pompeii, or even a quarter of it. Suffice it to say that we walked 




A SUPPER-PARTY. 



I 



WHERE DIOMEDES LIVED. 371 

through the streets, visited several houses, went to the Forum, several 
temples, the amphitheatre, and other points of general interest. One 
building that we entered is supposed to have been a sort of custom- 
house, as a number of weights and measures were found there. Close 
to it is the House of the Surgeons, which derives its name from the fact 
that it contained quite a lot of surgical instruments. We had already 
seen them in the museum at Naples, and it is a curious circumstance 
that the exact duplicates of certain instruments which have been in- 
vented and patented during this century were found in Pompeii. 

" We went through the Street of Tombs, which was the great mili- 
tary road in the direction of Naples and Eome, and receives its name 
from the fact that many burial-places were ranged along the sides of 
the road. Mrs. Bassett wanted to see the sentry-box where a Roman 
soldier died at his post of duty, as described so graphically in Bulwer's 
Last Days of Pompeii. We saw the box, which was really a tomb, 
and the probability is that the skeleton found Avithin it had been there 
tor years before the eruption took place. Bulwer's description is a 
beautiful piece of fiction, and has been greatly admired. 

" Of course we did not fail to visit the Villa of Diomedes, whose 
tomb was close to his house. He seems to have been a man of a prac- 
tical turn of mind, as he erected his tomb during his lifetime, and had it 
where he could observe it conveniently whenever he liked. His house 
was an extensive one, with a garden more than a hundred feet square, 
surrounded by a colonnade. There is a cellar under this colonnade, and 
in it were found eighteen bodies of women and children who had fled 
there and provided themselves with food, under the belief that they 
would be protected against the eruption ; they were fpund with their 
heads wrapped up and buried in the ashes and mud. Mr. Diomedes 
himself attempted to escape by way of the garden ; he was found near 
the garden door with the key in his hand, and with him, or, rather, 
just behind him, was a slave with money and costly jewelry. 

" They have a museum here, but the articles preserved in it are of 
no great value, the most of them being duplicates of the articles in the 
museum at Naples. Among the most interesting things that we saw 
there were the casts of bodies found in the ashes. During the centu- 
ries that they lay underground the bodies of those who perished by the 
eruption disappeared altogether, with the exception sometimes of the 
bones, and left cavities in the earth of their exact shape. Repeatedly 
during the progress of the excavations the workmen have come upon 
cavities of the shape of human bodies ; various plans were adopted to 



372 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 




obtain casts of these places, but none were successful until one of the 
officials hit upon the plan of pouring melted tallow into the openings, 
and obtained the cast which he desired. 

" In many instances the casts of openings or cavities were of no 
value, while in others they were of great importance. On one occasion 
a workman found a small hole, which looked as though it might 

have been made by a human 
finger. The superintendent was 
called, kettles of melted tallow 
were brought, and the liquid 
was poured into the cavity ; but 
kettle after kettle Avas required 
before the cavity was 'filled up. 
When the tallow had cooled 
thoroughly the earth around it 
was carefully removed, and a 
complete cast of a human body 
^ was obtained. Duplicates have 
been made of it in plaster, and 
are now preserved in the museum 
at Naples, and also in the mu- 
seum here in Pompeii. 
"The paintings on the walls of the houses, as you have already 
learned from our account of the museum at Naples, have generalh-^ faded 
and lost most of their color, but enough of them remain to give an idea 
of the Pompeian style of decoration. We have bought photographs 
of some of them, and shall keep these photographs as souvenirs of our 
visit ; some of the houses contain many paintings and others very few. 
The house of the Quaestor was particularly rich in paintings ; among 
them were Perseus and Andromeda, and another which represented 
Medea meditating the murder of her children. The garden of this 
house contains rows of wine jars, which are standing exactly as they 
were placed in the year of the eruption ; on one of the columns is a 
drawing which was scratched by a sharp instrument, and it has an 
inscription in Greek directly underneath the drawing. 

" In the House of the Tragic Poet we came across a mosaic which 
has become celebrated ; it is at the entrance, and represents a dog 
wearing a collar bristling with spikes, and tugging heavily at a cord 
which restrains him. At his feet is the inscription ' Cave Canem P 
(Beware of the dog !) Evidently the proprietor of the house was some- 



BEWARE OF THE DOG !" 




y^M'T-'-^W^ 



>:^>^ . 



VIEW OF VESUVIUS FROM CAPRI. 



374 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

thing of a wag, who planned this Httle joke upon his visitors, as a dog 
in mosaic is not likely to be dangerous. The mosaic now here is a 
modern one, an exact copy of the original which was taken up twenty 
or thirty years ago and removed to Naples." 

After our friends had concluded their investigation of Pompeii, they 
arranged for a visit to the Island of Capri. Its name indicates that it is 
the island of goats; the goats are there, but they do not have entire 
possession of the island. Capri stands directly in front of Naples, and 
the indications are that it was once joined with the main-land. In 
some of the earthquakes and volcanic upheavals that take place here 
periodically, Capri was detached and became an island, and probably 
its near neighbor, Ischia, has a similar history. 

Capri is not densely peopled, but has been occupied from very 
ancient times ; it presents nearly everywhere a bold face towards the 
water, and there are only two places where boats can land safely. 
The highest point is about 2000 feet above the sea-level, and on one 
side are the cliffs, which are nearly 1000 feet in height and rise 
abruptly from the sea. The island has about 5000 inhabitants, and 
its principal products are fruit, oil, and wines ; there are many fisher- 
men living on the island, and a considerable portion of the people are 
engaged in the fishing industry. 

Probably the largest source of income is found in the strangers who 
visit the island, the number being fully 30,000 every year. Our friends 
contributed their share to this sort of revenue, and were well satisfied 
with their outlay, as the island is picturesque and interesting ; although 
the people are classed as Italians, they are not altogether like their 
neighbors of Naples, and have many Avays of their own. 

Before the party went there, Mary investigated the history of Capri, 
and said it was a favorite resort of the Emperor Augustus, who founded 
palaces and baths there and built an aqueduct. The Emperor Tiberius 
also lived there for the last ten years of his life, and traditions concern- 
ing his way of existence are still circulating among the people. 

" We went to Capri by the steamboat," said Mary, " which gave us 
a very agreeable trip across the Bay of Naples. The boat landed us at 
the Marina Grande, or principal landing-place, which is a miniature 
sort of harbor with flat-roof buildings fronting the water in an almost 
continuous line. The town of Capri is not at the landing-place, but 
farther back and higher up. Down to comparatively recent times the 
only road to it was a pathway with steps, but a carriage road was 
made there a few years ago, so that one can reach the town very com- 



SITUATION OF THE TOWN. 



375 



fortably. Its elevation is nearly five hundred feet above the bay, and 
it lies in a hollow which connects the eastern part of the island with 
the west ; the situation is very picturesque. 

" I wondered why the town was placed in such an inaccessible posi- 
tion, and was told that it was founded in the fifteenth century, in con- 
sequence of the older town, which was at the water's edge, being 
visited very often by pirates ; they robbed the buildings, maltreated 
the people, and occasionally carried some of the inhabitants away to 
sell them into slavery. In order to escape their incursions the people 




MARINA- GRANDE. 



fled from the shore, and selected the present location of the place ; it 
has an old monastery, which was founded long before the town was 
established ; the building is now used as a military barrack, and con- 
tains a small garrison of soldiers from IS'aples. 

" When we were arranging to visit Capri we found that we would 
not have an opportunity to see the island thoroughly unless we spent 
a night there, as the steamboat only allows passengers three or four 
hours on shore ; consequently, we came prepared to stay, and Frank 
arranged for our lodgings at one of the hotels as soon as we arrived. 
There are several hotels here, most of them very good ; the one w^here 



376 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



we stopped was excellent, and I would have been perfectly willing to 
remain there several days. If anybody wants to live cheapl}^ this is a 
good place for him to patronize, as the prices are something surprising. 
You can get very good furnished apartments, including breakfast, for 
forty or fifty francs (eight or ten dollars) a month, and if you are will- 
ing to pay eighty or a hundred francs a month you can be lodged in 
almost princely fashion. A little money will go a great way in Capri 
if you know just how to use it. 

" History tells us that the Emperor Tiberius built twelve palaces on 
the island, and named them after the twelve deities whom he was most 
anxious to propitiate. Tiberius the natives call Timberio ; and accord- 
ing to the accounts that have come down to us, the palaces that he 
built were magnificent, and his way of living was infamous in the 
extreme. After he died the Roman Senate condemned all his palaces 
to destruction — they probably wished to wipe out all mementos of 
that bad man ; but it is a great pity for us who come to see the island, 
as the palaces would have added very much to the interest of the 

place. There are traces of all 
of them, but not enough to 
give a clear idea of what they 
were originally. 

" The building that is in 
the best state of preservation 
was the Ydla of Jove, which 
was situated on the eastern 
end of the island, on a spot 
which commanded a magnifi- 
cent view of the main -land 
and of the water directly in 
front. On our way there we 
passed a rock which is called 
the Salto di Tiberio ; it takes 
its name from a story, which I hope has no foundation, that the tyrant 
Tiberius used to throw his victims from this point. The rock is about 
seven hundred feet above the sea, and rises perpendicularly, so that if a 
person should be throwm from it his death would be absolutely certain. 
" We went out on a projecting platform, which has a strong railing 
around it, and looked directly down on the weaves as they broke against 
the rock. Frank and Fred dropped pieces of stone over the railing, 
and the time taken by the stones in their fall gave us a good idea of 




LIGHT-HOUSE OF TIBERIUS. 



THE VILLA OF TIBERIO. 



377 



the height of the rock. A little distance away to the right are the 
ruins of an ancient light-house ; it is said to have been erected by order 
of Tiberius, but whether that is really so or not I am unable to say. 

" We were somewhat disappointed with the Villa of Tiberio when 
we reached it, as the only remains of the building consist of a series 




FISHER PEOPLE OF CAPKI. 



of vaulted chambers and corridors that are not in a good state of pres- 
ervation. Exactly what was the use of these chambers and corridors 
no one is able to make out clearly. The natives who owned the land 
have put the ruins to a practical use, as they occupy part of them as 
stables for their cows and goats, and very good stables they are. 

"On the highest point of rock above the villa is a small chapel, in 
which is a cell occupied by a hermit ; he is a hermit more in theory 
than in practice, as he is willing to talk with visitors and drives a 
fairly good business by selling wine to them. Perhaps I ought to say 
giving wine instead of selling, since he offers it as a courtesy, though 
he expects payment for it ; if the visitor starts to leave without giving 
sufficient compensation for his entertainment, he is pretty certain to be 
reminded of his neglect to reward his host. 

" There are two towns on the island, one called Capri, which has 
already been mentioned, and the other called Anacapri. We did not 



378 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

want Anacapri to be jealous, so we visited it ; but I must say that I 
don't think the interest of the place equalled the difficulty of reaching 
it, though it is more easy to reach than it used to be. Down to 1874 
visitors were obliged to ascend a flight of five hundred and thirty -five 
steps to get to Anacapri, and if they came directly from the Marina 
there were two hundred and fifty more which they had to climb. 

" ]N'ow there is a road, and a very good one, too, which ascends by 
long windings and must have cost a great deal of money, as it is hewn 
in the rock for the principal part of the way. Near this road are the 
ruins of a castle, which is called Castello di Barbarossa, not in honor of 
the man who built it, but in remembrance of the one who destroyed it ; 
he was a pirate, and came here in the sixteenth century. As if it were 
not enough to preserve his name in this way by attaching it to the 
ruins of the castle which he destroyed, the proprietor of the hotel at 
the entrance to Anacapri has named his place Albergo de Barbarossa. 
"We stopped a few minutes at the hotel, which is not of an attractive 
appearance, and if the pirate stopped there any length of time I don't 
wonder that he wanted to destroy something. 

" There are a good many grottos and caves in the Island of Capri ; 
of course the guide sounded their praises and wanted us to visit all of 
them; the natives say that the island is built upon grottos and caves, 
and I have no doubt such is the case. The most interesting of all is the 
Blue Grotto, which is in the rock and cliff that faces towards the north ; 
it is not as large as some of the other grottos along the rocky shore, 
but is interesting from its peculiarities. The entrance to it is directly 
from the water, and is not more than three feet high by five in width. 

" The day we went to the island it would have been impossible to 
visit the grotto, as the wind was blowing from the north-east ; when- 
ever the wind blows from east or north, or from any point between those 
two cardinal ones, boats cannot enter the Blue Grotto ; but the captain 
of the steamer which brings you from Naples never mentions that cir- 
cumstance, and if you ask him anything about it he declares he never 
heard anything of the kind. It often happens that visitors make sev- 
eral attempts to visit the grotto without being able to see the inside of 
it. The second day of our stay the wind was blowing from the south, 
and the boatmen at the Marina assured us there would be no trouble. 
So confident were they that when Frank and Fred expressed doubts on 
that point, they offered to take us there and back for nothing in case 
we did not succeed in entering the cavern. 

" We went in a row-boat, the distance being a little more than 



THE BLUE GROTTO. 



379 



a mile from the Marina. It was very pretty and interesting to go in 
this way, and I was very glad of the opportunity of thus making the 
journey, instead of going by the prosaic steamboat. The water was 
very clear ; we could look down a great distance and see the red coral 







VIEW IN THE ISLAND. 



at the bottom of the sea, and the fishes swimming about, while the sur- 
face of the water was covered in places with sea-stars and jelly-fish. 
We passed the baths of Tiberius on the way, but there is verv little to 



380 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

be seen of thera, as the buildings were destroyed at the same time as 
the rest of the edifices erected by the Emperor. When we got to the 
Blue Grotto we were surrounded by a swarm of little boats ready to 
take us inside. There was a party of six ladies and gentlemen who 
went from the Marina to the grotto at the same time as ourselves, so 
that we were ten in all, and about the time we arrived a steamboat 
came from Naples bringing thirty or forty tourists. 

" The row-boats which take people inside can only carry three pas- 
sengers ; mamma and Frank got into one of the boats, and Fred and I 
into another. We wondered why the boat which brought us from the 
Marina could not enter, and were told that it was too large ; but we 
found out when we reached the entrance, as the boatman motioned to 
us that we must stoop very low, and we did so. This was necessary in 
order to prevent hitting our heads against the very low arch at the 
entrance. It was not necessary to remain long in this posture, as the boat 
slid quickly through the entrance, and then we could lift our heads as 
high as we pleased. The grotto is nearly two hundred feet long by 
about one hundred feet in width, and the roof is fully forty feet high. 
The water is deep through the greater part of the grotto, being nearl}^ 
fifty feet in some places. Perhaps you wonder why it is called the 
Blue Grotto, instead of the Eed or Yellow one. 

" Well, this is the reason : Nearly all the light that enters the place 
must come through the water, the low and narrow entrance being noth- 
ing more than a very insignificant window. The light is not colorless 
like the ordinary shade of the light of day, but is blue hke that of the 
sky. The water of the Mediterranean, as you are probably aware, is 
generally of a deep blue, and on the day we made our visit the sky was 
of that color. Well, as the light comes through the Avater it is tinged 
with blue ; as you look around in the air you see the bluish shade over 
all the rock, and when you look down into the water you see more 
color than in the air above. There is a silvery sheen everywhere, and 
as the waves rise and fall gently against the rocks on the side of the 
grotto they reflect it ; the oars and the sides of the boat present the 
same appearance, and you almost think they are painted. 

" As soon as we were inside the grotto one of the boatmen (there 
were two in our boat), proposed that his comrade should plunge into 
the water on payment of a franc from each of us, and let us see the 
effect of the waves upon him. Fred consented to the arrangement ; at 
the same time a similar bargain was made with Frank by the boatmen 
in his boat, and not only in our two boats, but in the ten or twelve 




other boats that came into f 
the grotto was a similar \ 
arrangement made. Every 
passenger, therefore, was to 
pay one franc to reward 

the boatman for his trouble in removing his ordinary clothing and don- 
ning a bathing costume for the amusement of the visitors in the cavern. 

" The affair turned out to be a very shrewd speculation on the part 
of the boatmen. All the bargains were concluded, and then the chief 
of the rowers gave a signal ; out from behind one of the rocks in the 
interior of the grotto there came a man already costumed for the per- 
formance. He plunged into the water and swam around all the boats, 
visiting each in turn, and thus served as the proxy for all the individual 
boatmen who were to plunge into the waters of the grotto. 

" The harvest of francs was a very good one, and we couldn't help 
admiring the shrewd trick by which it was obtained. We learned 
afterwards that it was a regular every-day performance, and as every- 
body was satisfied it will probably go on without cessation from year 



382 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

to year. As the man swam around in the water his body seemed to be 
covered with a coating of burnished silver ; before he plunged in and 
after he came out there was none of this light about him, and it only 
appeared when he entered the water, and continued as long as he re- 
mained there. The effect w^as very curious. 

" On the south side of Capri is a similar cavity in the rock, which is 
called the Green Grotto. Its waters are of the purest emerald green ; 
the entrance is so lofty that boats may pass in and out without the 
least difficulty, and as plenty of light can pass into the cave the effect 
is not as remarkable as that of the Blue Grotto. Then there is the 
White Grotto, where the water has the appearance of milk, and the 
Eed Grotto, whose roof is dotted with red crystals visible in the lime- 
stone rock. There is a Grotto of Ferns, a Grotto of Stalactites, and I 
don't know how many other grottos altogether. The Grotto of the 
Stalactites is not entered from the sea, but by the land in the centre of 
the island, and in order to reach it you must go down hundreds of feet 
by a path that is difficult, and by no means the safest in the world. 
In one place at the water-side there is a natural arch in the rock, high 
enough for a boat to pass beneath, and the shape of the arch is so sym- 
metrical that it almost appears to be artificial rather than natural. 

"The women of Capri struck me as better looking on the average 
than the women we saw at ISTaples. They perform most of the work 
which in other places is done by men ; I presume the reason for it is 
that the men are away a great part of their time, engaged in their 
occupation of fishermen. We saw women working in the fields and 
gardens ; we saw them building houses, working on the roads, piling 
stones to form walls, and we passed a shoemaker's shop where several 
women were at work making shoes, and superintended by a woman, 
not a man being visible about the place. 

" The women carry heavy burdens on their heads, and go up and 
down the steep paths of the island with apparent ease, which comes, no 
doubt, from their long experience. Where a group of them were at 
work on a new house some women were bringing stones and plaster, 
while others were piling the stones into place. Most of the houses of 
Capri were built in this way ; the walls are laid up roughly, very much 
as a stone fence would be constructed in one of the New England 
States, and then the crevices between the rocks are filled in with 
cement. Plaster is placed over the whole, and this completes the 
work ; the walls are two or three feet thick, and as the cement is dura- 
ble a house built in this way is good for several hundred years. 



THE CORAL INDUSTRY OF CAPRI. 



383 



" Many of the men of Capri are occupied with coral fishing. They 
go in the spring to different parts of the Mediterranean to fish for 
€oral, and at the end of the season bring back the result of their sum- 
mer's work. JN'aples is a great market for coral, and the industry of its 
manufacture is a very important one. Some of the manufactories are 
in the city itself, but the majority of them are in the suburbs, princi- 
pally at Torre del Greco, which is on the road from J^aples to Pompeii. 

" We heard some of the songs and witnessed some of the dances of 
the people. They appear to be contented and happy, though their life 
is one of considerable poverty and hardship. They seemed to be indus- 
trious, and during our stay here we rarely saw an idle person ; even the 
beggars pursue their occupation w^ith great earnestness, and no doubt 
consider themselves fully deserving of all they are able to extract from 
the pockets of visitors." 




NATURAL ARCH. 



CHAPTEE XXL 

ISCIIIA.— THE GREAT EARTHQUAKE OF 1883.— SIGHTS OF ISCHIA.— ASCENDING THE 
EPOMEO.— A PROSPEROUS HERMIT.— SORRENTO.— THE ITALIAN NAVY.— MOD- 
ERN IRON-CLADS.— THE ITALIA AND HER GREAT GUNS.— SHIPS AND MEN IN 
THE NAVY.— THE ITALIAN ARMY ; ITS COMPOSITION AND CHARACTER.— BER- 
SAGLIERL— ALPINE TROOPS AND AFRICAN CORPS.— ENORMOUS STRENGTH OF 
MILITARY FORCES.— SYSTEM OF RECRUITING.— ARMS AND EQUIPMENT OF THE 
SOLDIER; HIS BURDEN WHEN ON THE MARCH. —SHOPPING INVENTORY IN 
NAPLES. — DEPARTURE FOR MALTA. —STROMBOLI AND ITS PECULIARITIES.— 
MESSINA AND ITS GREAT EARTHQUAKE.— CATANIA. —THE ASCENT OF MOUNT 
J^-TNA.— SYRACUSE.— FOUNTALV OF ARETHUSA AND TRADITION CONCERNING 
IT.—THE EAR OF DIONYSIUS AND ITS ACOUSTIC PROPERTIES. 




OUR friends visited Ischia, 
which is considerably larger 
than Capri, being about nine- 
teen miles in circumference. It 
is less generally known than 
Capri, for the reason that the 
last-named island contains the 
Blue Grotto, which everybody 
wishes to see, and also from its 
position nearer to Naples and 
Sorrento. Ischia has a delight- 
ful climate and a productive 
soil. It has about twenty thou- 
sand inhabitants, whose principal occupation is the culture of grapes 
and other fruit, and there is a considerable percentage of the number 
engaged in fishing. Many of the women are occupied with straAv-plait- 
ing, and there is quite an industry in the manufacture of tiles ; but a 
very large part of the revenue of the island is derived, in one way and 
another, from visitors, who go there in great numbers. 

The Island of Ischia is of volcanic origin. Monte Epomeo, its high- 
est mountain, was an active volcano at a much earlier date than Vesu- 
vius, and in consequence of its eruptions the Greeks who had settled 



ITALIAN SHIP OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 




THE "AMERIGO VESPUCCI." — [From "Modern Ships of War.' 



386 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



there deserted the island entirely in the fifth century before the Chris- 
tian era. Many other eruptions are on record ; the last one occurred in 
1302, and traces of it are clearly visible in several places. 

On the way to the island Mrs. Bassett asked if Ischia had not suf- 
fered severely from earthquakes in modern days. 

" Yes," replied Frank ; " it has suffered very severely, and one of the 
worst earthquakes in its history took place in 1883. In 1881 there were 
several shocks, in which about three hundred houses were destroyed and 
one hundred and fourteen lives lost ; and there were earthquakes at that 
time in all parts of southern Italy, which continued for some weeks and 
then subsided. Two years later (1883), on July 28th, came the most 
terrible shock, or rather series of shocks, which the island has ever expe- 
rienced. The town of Casamicciola and several villages were almost 
entirely destroyed ; two thousand lives were lost and several thousand 
people were rendered destitute. Among those killed by the earth- 
quakes were many foreigners, several of them from our own country. 
Very few buildings in the town remained standing ; the church, bath- 
houses, the hospital, were all thrown into confused heaps of ruins, and 

the few houses that withstood the convulsion 
were so severely cracked and twisted that it 
was necessary to take them down." 

" I sha'n't feel safe while I am on that 
island," Mrs. Bassett remarked, "and shall be 

satisfied with a 
very brief stay." 

"Naturally; 
that is the feeling 
of the majority of 
people who visit 
the place," said 
Frank. " Before 
the earthquake 
Ischia was a fa- 
vorite health re- 
sort, but it was 
entirely aban- 
doned by strangers for several years afterwards. Then the foreigners 
began to find their way back to the mineral springs, which retain their 
old powers of healing, and the earthquake is being gradually forgotten 
as time rolls on. The natives of the place did not long remain away, 




-.-^.?ir 



A'-^^y^^Zt^.' ^ 



A AVAYSIDE MONUMENT. 



3^^3^i\^^^?*VT^ > ' 



'\^' 




and appeared as indifferent to 
the possibilities of another 
earthquake as the people 
around Vesuvius do regarding 
the prospect of another erup- 
tion of the volcano." 

Our friends landed at the 
little harbor of Ischia, and 
proceeded at once to visit the 
scene of the calamity of 1883. 
The ruins were scattered 
everywhere, and the sight was 
a melancholy one, relieved 
somewhat by the active work 
in process for rebuilding the 
town. By order of the Gov- 
ernment the new houses are 
all built of light timber and 
plaster - work. It has been "^ '- 

found by experience that sorrexnto. 

houses of this construction en- 
dure the shock of earthquakes much better than those with solid walls. 
Frank explained to his mother that in countries where earthquakes are 
very frequent, the people, provided the climate is tropical, live in houses 
of the lightest materials, largely for the reason that it is next to im- 
possible to throw their dwellings down upon their heads. 

For the sake of the view the party ascended the Epomeo, whose 
summit is about twenty -six hundred feet above the sea -level. The 
mountain is a picturesque one, as the northern side of it is almost per- 
pendicular ; the other sides slope considerably, and wherever there is a 
bit of earth among the rocks it is assiduously cultivated. On the top 
is a hermitage and a chapel hewn in the volcanic rock, and the hermit 
who lives there drives a profitable business in selling wine and bread to 
visitors. His prices are so exorbitant that he ought, in a decade or so, 
to lay aside enough money to enable him to spend the declining years 



388 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

of his life in a luxurious apartment in one of the great cities of the 
world. There is a magnificent view from Epomeo, embracing a wide 
area of land and water in three directions, and in the fourth the blue 
surface of the Mediterranean, dotted with many sails. 

Out of deference to Mrs. Bassett's prejudices the party returned to 
^Naples the same day, and on the following morning made a visit to 
Sorrento, going by rail to Castellamare, and thence ascending to Sor- 
rento by carriage. Sorrento is a favorite spot of residence for Italians, 
as well as for those who are not natives of the country. It is beauti- 
fully situated amid luxuriant orange and lemon gardens, and its front 
towards the sea is precipitous and exceedingly picturesque. Inland 
from Sorrento there are deep ravines, which the imagination and super- 
stition of the inhabitants have peopled with dwarfs, hobgoblins, and 
other things more or less supernatural and terrible. 

" There was a city here in the time of the Romans," said Mary in 
her journal, " and it was called Surrentum ; during the Middle Ages it 
had a considerable trade, and was a place of so much importance that 
several attempts were made to capture it. "We asked if we could see 
the walls and towers of the Roman city, and were told that there were 
few traces of them remaining at present. In ancient times there were 
many temples and villas here, but nowadays there are only a few frag- 
ments of buildings, and some subterranean cisterns which contain excel- 
lent drinking-water. If they had water as good as this during the time 
of the Romans, I do not wonder that Surrentum was a popular resort. 

" Sorrento is a great place for doing nothing. If I wanted to be idle 
all the time I would like to stay here, as the spot is delightful ; but 
really I don't enjoy it as much as some of the people seem to — perhaps 
because I haven't been long enough away from home. The ordinary 
routine of life here seems to be to bathe in the morning, loiter around 
or sleep during the middle of the day, make a short excursion in the 
neighborhood in the latter part of the afternoon, and after sunset 
lounge in what they call the Piazza, which is simply a strolling or 
loitering place. There are dances occasionally in some of the hotels and 
music by a band, and when the music is all over it is time to go to bed. 
The next day and the next and the next the same routine is followed, 
varied slightly by the condition of the weather." 

Two days were spent at Sorrento, and then the party returned to 
Naples. On the following day Mrs. Bassett and Mary decided to make 
a shopping tour, whereupon Frank and Fred arranged to take the train 
to Castellamare to visit the naval station there. Castellamare, it may 



CASTELLAMARE, THE ANCIENT STABI^. 



389 



be proper to say, lies at the base of the Peninsula of Sorrento, and occu- 
pies the site of the ancient Stabige, which was destroyed in the year 79 
by the same eruption of Vesuvius that overwhelmed Pompeii. The 
elder Pliny perished here, as already mentioned, while observing the 
eruption. Attempts were made about one hundred years ago to exca- 
vate the ruins of Stable, but very little was done, and the places that 
were then laid bare have since been covered again with rubbish. The 




ROAD NEAR SORRENTO. 



modern town derives its name from a castle which was built in the 
thirteenth century for defensive purposes, and is now in ruins. 

Frank and Fred desired to see some of the armored ships of war be- 
longing to the Italian Government, and with this object in view they 
obtained, through the aid of the American consul at ]N"aples, per- 
mission to visit the dockyard at Castellamare. They found several 



390 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



vessels of the Navj lying in the harbor, and work was progressing on some 
new ships whose completion was expected to require several months. 
The youths were courteously received, and placed in the care of a young 
officer, who acted as their guide during their stay in the dockyard. ]S"ot 




DECK-PLAN OF THE " ITALIA." 



only was he their guide, but in all probabilities he had strict orders to 
see that they made no sketches or took measurements of anything they 
saw ; he had no occasion whatever to reprove them, as the youths were 
well aware that, in accordance with the regulations, no sketching would 
be permitted, and therefore they did not attempt any. 

We will listen to Frank as he tells about what they saw during 
their visit to the dockyard at Castellamare. 

" It Avould take altogether too long and be rather dry reading," he 
wrote in his journal, " to give you a detailed account of the various 
classes of ships that make up the Italian Navy. The Italian naval con- 
structors have devoted a great deal of attention to the development of 

speed and gun power in their large war- 
I ships. Some of the heaviest guns of the 

world are those carried by the Italian 
vessels, and these great craft are capable 
of steaming at a high rate of speed. The 
Re Umherto^ Sicilia^ and Lejpanto are each 
capable of steaming eighteen knots an 
hour, and the Italia can steam very nearly 
as fast. All these are large sea -going 
steamers of the first class measuring, or 
having a displacement, of nearly fourteen 
thousand metric tons, and from twelve to 
eighteen thousand horse-power. The Duilio, Dandolo, Laiiria^ Morosini, 
and Boria have each a displacement of eleven thousand tons with cor- 
responding horse-power, and can steam at the rate of fifteen or sixteen 
knots. Most of the vessels I have named are armor clad throuo^h their 



C~[IirD= t^ 




SECTION OF THE *' ITALIA. 




iliiiii 



iii|l| 



IBii^ 



392 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

whole length, while the others are armored only at their vital portions 
amidships. Ships with iron or steel protection throughout their whole 
length are generally spoken of as ' armored,' while those only partially 
protected with plating are called ' citadel ' ships. 

" We were permitted to go on board the Italia, which was lying in 
the harbor. She is certainly a very powerful vessel ; but those who are 
skilled in naval matters say she would be no match for some of the 
iron-clads of later build. She was launched in 1880, and of course 
great improvements have been made since that time. The object of the 
Italian ministry when they proceeded to build the Italia was evidently 
to be able to cope with the ships which France possessed, and in order 
to make quick work of the war-vessels of her neighbor in case of war 
the Italia was equipped with guns of the then largest calibre. 

" The Italia carries only four guns. They are arranged in pairs in a 
citadel in the centre of the ship, and each pair of guns is in a revolving 
turret, so that they may be turned in any direction. The arrangement 
is such that the vessel can bring two guns to bear upon anything, no 
matter in what direction it may be ; whether it is directly forward, 
directly aft, or at any angle on either side, two guns can always reach 
it. I can best illustrate this position by making a little drawing which 
shows the deck-plan of the vessel. (See page 390.) 

" The same principle is followed in other ships of the Italian I^avy^ 
and it seems to me a very good one. Each of the Italians guns weighs 
more than 100 tons. The greatest thickness of the armor on the sides 
of the citadel is 19 inches. The vessel draws 28 feet of water, is 400 
feet long by 74 in width, and her displacement exceeds 13,000 tons. 

" With 12 or 15 sea-going armor-clad vessels, the Itahan I^avy is no 
small affair ; but this does not by any means exhaust the list, as there 
are more than 20 other vessels with a measurement all the way from 2000 
up to 4000 tons, and with corresponding horse-power. Some of them 
are broadside ships, some are cruisers with protected decks, and some 
are unprotected. Altogether the Italian Navy has a total of 250 vessels 
of different kinds, carrying nearly YOO guns, and manned by 20,000 sailors. 

" The officers of the Navy in active duty are 6 vice-admirals, 18 rear- 
admirals, 169 captains, and a corresponding proportion of lieutenants, 
engineers, doctors, and other persons connected with the service. In 
addition to the 20,000 men of the crews in active duty there are 40,000 
men kept in reserve, and in the same way there are fully 500 officers on 
limited leave or in reserve, who could be called to duty in case of war. 
Altogether the Italian Navy is not to be despised, and any maritime 




!iiHii;i"iiiiiiiiiiiiiiia=£g i!iiiiSiiiiiiiiiaift^aJuy.T 1 M 111. illlji. i| 1 1 1! iillllllll . »„^^^r™>^fa|llll' 

KING HUMBERT AS GENERAL OF THE ARMY.— [From " The Armies of To-Day."] 



394 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

country whose supply of war-ships is not so good would do well to 
think twice before entering into a war against the Italian nation." 

While on the subject of national defence, it may be well to consider 
the Army of Italy. Fred anticipated our intentions on this point, and 
we are indebted to him for the following paragraphs on the subject : 

" The military organization of Italy," said Fred, "is based upon the 
universal liability of every able-bodied citizen to serve in the Army. 
About two-fifths of all the young men twenty years old are drawn an- 
nually ; the number reaching this age in each year is said to be about 
two hundred thousand, and consequently eighty thousand of them are 
drafted into the standing army and put to active service, ^vhile the rest 
are placed in the second and third categories. The time of duty required 
for the first category varies for the different arms of the service ; it is 
five years in the infantry, four years in the cavalry, and three years in 
the artillery and engineers. When the men have finished their terms of 
service they are granted unlimited leave, but are enrolled in the perma- 
nent army for four or five years longer, when they are both transferred 
to the territorial militia. Those of the second category are entered in the 
permanent army for eight years and the mobile militia for four years, 
and after that time has expired they become part of the territorial 
militia. The men of the third category are entered at once in the terri- 
torial militia, but are placed on unlimited leave. The whole period of 
service for every man is nineteen years, or from his twentieth to his 
thirty-ninth year, and it is very diflicult to obtain exemption. 

" The system of military organization is much the same as that of 
Germany, and the same rule applies that in time of peace young men 
of superior education may enlist as one-year volunteers. 

"I was well aware," continued Fred, "that the standing army of 
Italy was a large one before I made any investigation into the subject ; 
one could not fail to understand this when meeting the officers and 
soldiers everywhere, especially the former. Military men are quite as 
numerous in Italy as in Germany or Austria. The soldiers are not as 
sturdy in their physique as those of Germany, but they are capable of a 
good deal of fatigue and endurance, and have certainly given a good 
account of themselves on the battle-field. The officers are a fine-look- 
ing body of men, and evidently come from the best families of Italy. 
Their uniform can be readily distinguished from that of the Austrian 
or German officers, and to judge by the neatness of all the uniforms I 
luive seen I conclude that their owners take great pride in them, or else 
are compelled by the regulations to appear to do so. 




BERSACxLlERl.— [From "The Armies of To-Day."] 



396 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

"In case of war Italy could place in the field an army of almost 
stupendous dimensions, when we consider the size of the country and 
its population. The permanent army has, in round numbers, 14,000 
officers and 250,000 men under arms at all times, and it has 12,000 
officers and 575,000 men on unlimited leave. There you have a very 
good-sized army — 850,000 and more ; but it is by no means all. 

"In the mobile militia there are 3700 officers and 370,000 men, 
while in the territorial militia there are 6000 officers and 1,600,000 
men. The territorial militia in time of peace does not amount to 
much as a fighting force ; it is called out every four years for thirty 
days' drill, but you must remember that a great portion of the territo- 
rial militia has been, in one form or another, in the permanent army or 
in the mobile militia, and has learned a good deal of the duty of the 
soldier. In time of war all these men are liable to be called into the 
field, so that altogether, by the latest figures which I find in the States- 
men's Year Book, the military force of Italy comprises 2,852,323 offi- 
cers and men of all ranks and kinds. 

" There are various kinds of troops in the Italian infantry, such as 
carabineers, bersaglieri, and Alpine troops ; and the cavalry and artillery 
are divided into several different grades or kinds in the same way as 
the infantry is divided. 

"The most picturesque of the Italian soldiers that we have seen 
are bersaglieri, who are chosen from the strongest and the best propor- 
tioned men that can be found in the country. Before a man is enrolled 
in one of these regiments he undergoes a medical examination of the 
most rigid character. The bersaglieri have a very picturesque uniform, 
which includes a short tunic or single-breasted coat and trousers held 
at the ankle by over-gaiters. They carry a breech-loading rifie with 
sword - bayonet, and wear a knapsack strapped to their backs. The 
most striking part of the outfit is the hat, which is very broad in the 
brim, and held by a strap so that it rests over one side of the head, and 
it is ornamented in the crown with a plume of feathers from the black 
cock, which shines brightly in the sunlight. 

"How they manage to obtain feathers enough for decorating all 
the bersaglieri of Italy I cannot understand, as they consist of 12 reg- 
iments, with 67 officers and 1270 men in each regiment ; you can figure 
up for yourself the total number of these troops. They are armed in 
the same way as the infantry ; the rifle is what is called the Wetterly 
system, which has been improved by combination with the Yitali system. 
Smokeless powder is now supplied to the army, and experiments with 













ALPINE INFANTRY. — [From "The Armies of To-Day."l 



398 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

new varieties of this article are said to be in progress. There is also 
talk of a new repeating-rifle for the army, but the decision concerning 
its adoption is not expected for some time to come. 

" I asked an officer one day when talking about their soldiers how 
much weight each man of the infantry carried, and he answered that 
the total burden for a soldier on the march was about fifty-five pounds, 
which included his uniform, knapsack, gun, bayonet, and eighty -eight 
rounds of ammunition. Some of the brigades of infantry, and also one 
brigade of grenadiers, date from the sixteenth century, but most of the 
other brigades of the army are comparatively modern. 

"I must not forget to mention the Alpine or mountain infantry, 
which is recruited entirely from the mountain population of the north- 
ern part of the kingdom. The total strength of this force is about 
five hundred officers and ten thousand men, and it is armed and equipped 
in the same way as the infantry, though its uniform is quite different. 
Each company of soldiers is provided with two pieces of mountain 
artillery carried by eight pack-mules. The Alpine corps is kept nearly 
all the time in the mountainous regions of the country, where it is ex- 
pected to operate during time of war. When on the march in the 
mountains each soldier carries an alpen-stock in addition to his other 
equipments, this staff being of material aid to him in ascending and 
descending the steep and rugged pathways for which the Alps are 
famous. It is not carried in the level country. 

"A few years ago (1885) Italy obtained possession of a portion of 
the coast of Africa on the Ked Sea, and a small army was specially 
organized for service in that region. At first it was composed of men 
from the standing army who were then on furlough, but afterwards a 
special corps for the African service was created by law ; it was to be 
considered a special part of the national standing army, with a regular 
organization and staff, two regiments of infantry, one squadron of cav- 
alry, four artillery companies, and one engineer company. The strength 
of the African corps is about two hundred and fifty officers and five 
thousand men, the men being recruited from those in active service 
who make special application for transfer to the African contingent. 
This service was made attractive by a premium to each soldier of one 
thousand francs, in addition to his regular pay, for every two years of 
service. Kecently the natives in the limits of the Italian possession in 
Africa have been recruited into the service, and it is said that they 
make very good soldiers and are cheaply maintained. 

" The Government has five military academies at Milan, Florence, 



ITALIAN MILITARY SCHOOLS. 



399 



Korae, J^aples, and Messina, where a college education is given to young 
men whose families wish them to be fitted for the military profession. 
There are military schools at Modena and Turin, the first preparing 
young men for sub-lieutenancies in the infantry, cavalry, or commissary 
department, while the second gives the same training for the artillery 
and engineer service. There are staff colleges at Turin and other 
places, where a course of study is given to officers after they have grad- 




uated from the military academy of Turin. There are schools for offi- 
cers in the sanitary department, and altogether the military schools of 
Italy may be set down as of the very best character. Certainly they 
have given to the country admirable officers, and her record in the wars 
in which she has been engaged is one of which she ma}^ be proud." 

Mrs. Bassett and Mary finished their shopping, having supplied 
themselves with a liberal quantity of the articles for which I^aples is 



400 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

famous. They had a fine assortment of coral, lava, and tortoise-shell 
ornaments, copies of ancient bronzes and Etruscan vases, statuettes of 
different kinds, and gold ornaments after the Pompeian models. By 
the time they had finished their purchases their purses were pretty well 
depleted, and Mary said it would be necessary for them to go away 
very soon, or they would not be able to go at all. They took advan- 
tage of a steamer which was leaving IN^aples for the United States, and 
shipped their purchases directly home, where they arrived safely. 

Frank and Fred had planned to have the party proceed from l^aples 
to the south of France by steamer, but before completing any arrange- 
ments to do so they received a cordial invitation to visit Malta. It was 
tendered by Mr. Clapp, whom they had met and known in New York, 
but was then residing at Malta, having married a lady of that island. 
The letter which invited them to the island was followed by a telegram, 
which came at the very moment when they were discussing plans for 
their future movements, and our friends quickly accepted the invitation. 
A steamer was leaving ^N'aples that very evening on her way to Malta, 
touching at Messina, Catania, and Syracuse. Frank proceeded imme- 
diately to the office of the steamer and engaged passage, and when the 
boat departed our friends were on her deck watching the great city and 
its picturesque surroundings as they slowly receded from view. It was 
late in the afternoon when they started, and all remained on deck until 
night had fallen, as they felt that the beauty of the scene was something 
they could not afford to miss in the least degree. 

"When they came on deck after breakfast the next morning they 
found themselves in sight of Stromboli, a mountain that was regarded 
by the ancients as the seat of ^olus, the God of the Winds, and there 
are many superstitions concerning it at the present day. It is an act- 
ive volcano, and has been in a constant state of eruption from very an- 
cient times. It is not a high mountain, the cone being only a trifle over 
three thousand feet above the sea-level ; the crater is on the north side 
of the highest of the peaks, and it throws up masses of stones and cinders 
at very brief intervals, the length of these intervals varying from time 
to time. The captain of the steamer said that for a long while the ex- 
plosions had been taking place every eight minutes. Frank regretted 
that it was daytime instead of night, so that they might see the explo- 
sions ; but the captain informed him that they were not of sufficient 
magnitude to equal in any way the explosions at Vesuvius in times 
of eruption, being little more than the flash of a cannon. 

" It is as good as a light-house," Mrs. Bassett remarked. " In the 




daytime the mountain is visible 
for a long distance, and at night 
these explosions must be equal 
to a light burning and flashing 
on a high tower." 

" That is quite true," Frank 
repHed ; " and for centuries Stromboh has been known as ' The Light- 
house of the Mediterranean.' It is one of the best light-houses imag- 
inable, and it costs nothing for repairs or for the salary of keepers." 

Mary asked if anybody lived on the island, and learned that there 
was a considerable population there, partly engaged in fishing, and 
partly in the cultivation of grapes and other fruits. Wine is made 
there of the same character as that w^hich is produced on the slopes of 

26 



402 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

Vesuvius. The cultivated portions of the island are very fertile, and 
the constant activity of Stromboli keeps the ground sufficiently warm 
to accelerate vegetation. It is said that the eruptive force of the 
volcano is stronger in stormy Aveather than in periods of calm ; but this 
point is disputed by people Avho are familiar with the place, their ex- 
planation being that the clouds of smoke gather densely and hang 
about the mountain during periods of storm, but rise directly towards 
the sky when the air is clear and comparatively calm. 

Early in the afternoon the steamer reached Messina, where it was 
announced that she would not remain long, and consequently the time 
of our friends on shore was limited. They visited the cathedral, which 
is a very old building, or, rather, part of it is, the edifice having suffered 
a great deal during the earthquake of 1783, when the whole of southern 
Italy w^as shaken, several towns and cities being partially or entirely 
destroyed. Great numbers of buildings were thrown down in Messina, 
and thousands of the inhabitants perished ; but to-day the city is pros- 
perous, and many buildings have been erected during the last hundred 
years. Forty years before the earthquake there was a visitation of the 
plague, in which forty thousand persons died, and in 1854 the cholera 
had no fewer than sixteen thousand victims; but in spite of all its 
vicissitudes, the city is handsome, rich, and thriving. It has a fine 
commercial position on the Strait of Messina, and its harbor is one of 
the best on the coast of the Mediterranean. 

From Messina the steamer continued to Catania, passing along the 
coast, and having almost constantly in view the smoking cone of Mount 
^tna. Mary thought she would like to ascend J^tna, provided the trip 
could be accomplished as easily as that of Yesavius ; but Frank in- 
formed her that the journey was very much more fatiguing, as there 
was no wire-rope railway to carry them to the summit. " In ascend- 
ing Mount ^tna," said he, " a party will require guides, porters, and 
mules. You can go a part of the way in a carriage, from Catania to 
Nicolosi, and can do it in less than three hours. Then you go on a mule's 
back from Nicolosi to the observatory, which will take you about eight 
hours, and quite possibly nine or more." 

" That would consume a whole day, would it not ?" 

" Certainly, it would," said Frank. " The custom is to rest at the 
observatory until about two o'clock on the second morning, and then 
start on foot to make the ascent of the cone, which takes nearly, if not 
quite, two hours. Less time is required for the descent, but you can 
now understand what the journey up and down ^tna would be. You 



ASCENT OF MOUNT ^TNA. 



403 



must remember that Mount ^tna is very much higher than Vesuvius; 
its top is almost eleven thousand feet above the sea-level, and there are 
several different zones of vegetation upon the mountain. At the base, 
and up to a height of fifteen hundred feet, there are groves of oranges 
and lemons; then to the height of thirty-six hundred feet are vine- 
yards. Above the zone of the vines we are in what we may call the 
tree zone ; the lower half of it abounds in oaks and chestnuts, and the 
upper portion in pines and other coniferous trees. These extend up to 
perhaps seven thousand feet of elevation, and above that beeches and 
other hardy trees grow very scantily, and everything is stunted till you 
get within a thousand feet of the top, where there is no vegetation 
whatever — at least, none worth naming." 

" Thank you, very much," said Mary. " I don't care to venture up 
Mount ^tna. Vesuvius is quite enough of a volcano for me to re- 
member, and I don't think I shall forget it as long as I live." 




SYRACUSE. 



In order to gain a little time for sight -seeing at Syracuse, our 
friends landed at Catania from the steamer, and took the first train for 
the former city, there being little of consequence to see in Catania. 
Syracuse is much smaller and far less prosperous than either Catania 
or Messina ; in ancient times it was the most important town in Sicily — 



404 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE 



in fact, it was the most important of all the Hellenic cities. It was 
founded nearly eight hundred years before the Christian era, and has 
suffered from wars, pestilences, and other calamities, like most of the 
cities visited by our friends and described on previous pages. Syracuse 




PAPYRUS PLANTS. 



had a prominent place in ancient history, and the name of the tyrant 
Dionysius is connected with it. Many traces of the old city still re- 
main, but our friends paid little attention to the ruins of temples and 
ancient walls, and devoted themselves chiefly to the Fountain of Are- 
thusa, the Ear of Dionysius, and the Amphitheatre. The Fountain of 
Arethusa dates its fame to the mythological period ; it was formerly a 
fresh-water fountain, but an earthquake has changed it to salt. The 
story is that the nymph Arethusa was pursued by the river -god 



FOUNTAIN OF ARETHUSA. 



405 



Alpheus, and took refuge here, where Diana changed her into a fount- 
ain. The basin of the fountain contains many papyrus plants, and, 
according to tradition, it was from papyrus plants growing here that 
the first paper was made. For a few soldi Mary obtained the stalk of 
a papyrus plant, and carried it away as a souvenir of her visit. It was 
her intention to experiment with it, and ascertain if she could manu- 
facture paper from it after the manner of the ancients. She made a 
few efforts at cutting the pith into thin slices, and then abandoned the 
effort, declaring that modern paper was good enough. 

The Amphitheatre is a Eoman structure of the period of Augustus, 




RESTORED VIEW OF GREEK THEATRE AT SYRACUSE. 



and is about two hundred and fifty feet in length by perhaps two- 
thirds that width. The blocks of marble from the Amphitheatre are 
scattered in the arena, and some of them are inscribed with the names 
of the original proprietors of the seats. E'ear the Amphitheatre is an 
ancient quarry, from which the stone used in building the city was 
taken, and at one side of the quarry is the famous Ear of Dionysius. 

It is a grotto hewn in the rock in the form of the letter " S," about 
two hundred and fifty feet deep by seventy-four in height, and varying 



406 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



from fifteen to thirty-five feet in width. It contracts towards the sum- 
mit, and possesses a very remarkable acoustic peculiarity. The slight- 
est sound in the lower part of the grotto is heard by persons at the 
upper end, and the tradition is that Dionysius constructed this prison 
so that he could sit or stand at the top of it and hear every word w^hich 
was spoken below, even though it might be uttered in a whisper. The 
guide who took our friends thither stationed them at the upper point, 
and then went to the interior, where he not only showed the acoustic 
properties of the place, but wakened the echoes by causing the cus- 
todian to fire a pistol. It was only a very ordinary pistol, but it made 
noise enough, and roused echoes enough, so Mary said, for a whole 
military company. 




MOUNTAINS OF SICILY, WITH RUINED TEMPLE. 



, \ 



CHAPTER XXII. 



ARRIVAL AT MALTA; FIRST VIEW OF THE ISLAND. — THE GRAND HARBOR- 
DIVING FOR COINS.— NO SUCH CITY AS MALTA.— ON SHORE.— VALLETTA AND 
ITS HISTORY.— MEETING A FRIEND.— EARLY INHABITANTS OF MALTA.— THE 
KNIGHTS OF ST. JOHN ; WHAT THEY DID AND HOW THEY LIVED ; HISTORY 
OF THE ORDER. — THE FRENCH IN POSSESSION. —HOUSES BUILT BY THE 
KNIGHTS.— THE "LANGUAGES" AND THEIR PALACES.— CHURCH OF ST. JOHN; 
ITS PAVEMENT AND MEMORIALS. —MATTHIAS PRETL — THE GRAND MASTER'S 
PALACE.— COMMERCE OF MALTA.— STREETS OF STAIRS.— STRADA REALE, AND 
THE SIGHTS IT PRESENTS.— GOVERNMENT OF MALTA; NO TAXES UPON THE 
INHABITANTS —A FREE PORT WITH IMPORT DUTIES.— MALTESE PEDDLERS.— 
DRIVING SHARP BARGAINS.— FORT ST. ELMO. -HISTORICAL INCIDENTS.— THE 
CHAPEL OF THE KNIGHTS; HOW THEY TOOK THEIR LAST SACRAMENT.— A 
DENSE POPULATION. 



T 



'HE steamer arrived from Catania in 
the afternoon, and about sunset she 
left for Malta with our friends on board. 
They were up in good season the next 
morning to get their first view of the fa- 
mous island, but were somewhat disap- 
pointed at finding a dense fog hanging 
over the water in every direction. The 
speed of the steamer was reduced, and a 
careful watch was kept forward and aloft 
to avoid accidents. As the morning ad- 
vanced the fog-bank grew thinner ; in a 
little while the rocky cliffs of the island 
were discovered not more than a mile 
ahead, and it was found that the steamer 
was headed directly for one of the steep- 
est points of the island. The captain im- 
mediately ordered the course changed, and 

the vessel was steered in the direction of the port. He remarked as he 
did so, " We came pretty near runnmg the island down and sinking it." 

Yery soon the vessel was at anchor in the harbor, having passed the 




A STREET OF STAIRS. 



408 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



frowning fortresses which guard the entrance. Malta has a magnificent 
harbor, quite landlocked and of good anchoring depth everywhere. The 
water is clear, and hardly was the steamer anchored before she was 
surrounded by boats in which were men and boys who wanted to dive 

for coins. Our travellers were 
too much interested in looking 
at the picturesque shore en- 
circling the harbor to pay 
much attention to the divers, 
and the latter did not succeed 
in reaping a bountiful harvest 
of coins. They do much better 
just before the departure of a 
steamer, when passengers have 
nothing to do and are willing 
to be amused. The divers 
have a trick of refusing to go 
down for anything but silver, 
under the pretence that they 
cannot see copper. Should 
any coins of the latter metal 
be thrown they refuse to dive 
for them at the time, but they 
do so as soon as the steamer 
has departed. 

A boat was engaged to 
take the party to the landing- 
place, which was but a short 
distance away. Malta is a 
free port, and therefore the 
travellers had no perplexity 
with their baggage at the 
custom-house, but were speed- 
ily on their way to their hotel 
on the Strada Eeale, the prin- 
cipal street of the city. At the farther end of this street is a gate 
and a guard-house, where there is a passageway through the wall of 
the fort that guards the City of Valletta on the landward side. The 
other end of the Strada Eeale terminates at the Fort of St. Elmo, which 
guards the entrance from the blue Mediterranean. 




DITING FOR COINS. 






illpi] 


ill 


■■iiiiaisi 


1 


iliiti::i#''' 



410 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

" This is the City of Malta," said Mrs. Bassett, as she looked from 
the carriage when they were passing along the principal street. "I 
am very glad to be here, in a place so well built and clean." 

"Yes," remarked Frank, in reply. "After the cities of Italy its 
cleanliness and neatness are sure to impress a stranger. But you are 
wrong about one thing, mamma ; excuse me for saying so," continued 
Frank, " but there is no such city at all as Malta." 

"No such city!" said Mrs. Bassett, in a tone of astonishment. 
" What is it, then, please? There's a conundrum somewhere." 

"The city where we are now," was the reply, "is Valletta; ''it is 
on the Island of Malta, and the place where the governor lives; in or- 
dinary conversation the city bears the name of the island, which is not 
really the case. There is a peninsula lying between the Grand Harbor 
on one side and the Quarantine Harbor on the other ; the half of this 
peninsula towards the sea is occupied by Valletta, and the land half of 
it is called Floriana ; both are strongly fortified towards the land as 
well as towards the Avater. Valletta was laid out by John de la Val- 
lette, Grand Master of the Knights of Malta in 1566, and the whole 
city which bears his name was built in less than twenty years." 

" Were all these buildings put up at that time ?" Mrs. Bassett asked. 

" Oh, not all," was the reply ; " but a goodly proportion of them. 
The streets were laid out in regular order, and the forts were begun 
and pushed to completion as rapidly as possible. The fortifications 
have been strengthened from time to time, and the capture of the place 
would be a matter of very great difiiculty. But here we are at the 
hotel; I'll tell you more about the island and Valletta and the men 
that built it when I have an opportunity." 

The party took rooms at the hotel, and had just done so when Mr. 
Clapp arrived. He had been to the landing-place of the steamer to 
meet the party, chancing to get there shortly after their departure, and 
thus it happened that they reached the hotel before he did. He wished 
to take them at once to his house in the Strada Mercanti, and at first 
refused to listen to any proposal that they should remain at the hotel. 
After a little talk it was finally agreed that they would remain for that 
day and the next at the hotel, and then become his guests. He left 
them to themselves for a few hours, arranging to come in the afternoon 
for a drive, after which they would dine at his house, and in the even- 
ing accompany him to a reception at the Governor's Palace. 

We will not attempt to follow our friends in their wanderings dur- 
ing their stay in Malta, under the guidance of their very genial and 



THE FORTS OF MALTA. 



411 



energetic host, as it would require a portly volume to tell the whole 
story. Mr. Clapp allowed them to miss nothing of consequence during 
their stay, and his acquaintance with the officials was of great advan- 
tage to the strangers. They had the privilege, which is not often ac- 
corded to visitors, of seeing whatever they wished of the fortifications 
that protect -Malta against possible foes, and received invitations to 
various receptions, dinners, and other festivities that took place during 




THE HARBOR AT RHODES. 



their stay. They drove all about the island, visited the spot where St. 
Paul was wrecked, and were taken on an excursion to Gozo and Co- 
mino, which, with Malta, form the group of the Maltese islands. 

Frank remembered his promise to his mother relative to the history 
of Valletta and Malta. Not only did he tell her the story, but he 
wrote it out very carefully in his journal, from which we are permitted 
to make the following extract : 

" If you look at the map of the Mediterranean you will see that 
Malta occupies a very important geographical position ; this position, 
added to her magnificent harbors, has made Malta a place of the great- 



412 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

est importance from the earliest times of civilization. There is a tra- 
dition that the first settlement of the island was connected with the ex- 
pulsion of the Phoenicians from the land of Canaan by Joshua. On 
what this tradition is based I do not know, but it is certain that a col- 
ony of Greeks settled here twenty-six centuries ago, and lived on friend- 
ly terms with the older inhabitants. Malta was conquered by Carthage 
five hundred years e.g. ; the Carthaginians held the place for three hun- 
dred years, when it Avas occupied by the Romans. Malta was at one 
time a part of the Empire of the East, and remained so for nearly 
five centuries, and then it was conquered by the Moors, who in their 
turn were driven out by the Christians, who had become powerful. 

" But the most interesting part of the history of Malta is connected 
with the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, who came here when they 
were driven from Rhodes by the Turks. The knights had held Rhodes 
for more than two hundred years under nineteen grand masters. This 
famous order of chivalry was formed in the eleventh century, and at 
one time possessed great wealth and power. They fought many battles 
in the Holy Land with varying success, and their defence of Rhodes 
down to the day they surrendered it was so gallant that the Turks al- 
lowed them to retire with all the honors of war, and even to this day 
the Street of the Knights, at Rhodes, remains comparatively uninjured. 

''In the year 1530 Charles Y., Emperor of Germany, gave Malta 
and its dependencies to the Order of the Knights ; the deed of gift is 
preserved in the armory of the palace, and we looked at it with great 
interest during our visit. When they came to Malta the knights real- 
ized that they were not likely to be allowed to dwell in peace. There 
was only one fort here at that time, and they immediately strengthened 
it and began the building of other iortifications. The Turks came in 
1546 and again in 1551, but each time they were driven away, and the 
fleet of the knights captured many Turkish vessels at sea. Then the 
Turkish Sultan determined to make a grand effort for the capture of 
this stronghold of Christianity, and swore 'by his own head' that he 
would reduce it, no matter at what cost. 

"He sent a fleet of 138 vessels with 40,000 soldiers, and the siege 
lasted for nearly four months, both sides displaying the greatest brav- 
ery. Whatever the Turks may be to-day, history tells us they were 
among the best warriors of their time three centuries ago. 

" They captured the Castle of St. Elmo, but were unable to get pos- 
session of the other forts. They suffered from disease and privations 
quite as much as did the besieged, and when they finally retired on 



THE KNIGHTS OF MALTA. 



September 8th they were able to re-embark only 10,000 of the 40,000 
men whom they brought for the siege and capture of Malta. 

" John cle la Yallette was grand master at the time of this great 
siege. When it began he had 9000 men under him for the defence ; 
when the siege ended there were only 600 capable of bearing arms. 
Only the day before the siege was raised these 600 warriors had par- 
taken of the viaticum, embraced each other, and gone out upon the 
walls of their forts expecting never to see another sunrise. 

" They tell some interesting stories about the Knights of Malta and 
their ways of life. Though belonging to a religious order they were 
quite worldly in their ways, as one can see from the houses which they 
built and occupied. Evidently they were fond of comforts ; they lived 
well during times of peace, and were only subject to privations when 
besieged. By the rules of their order duelling was forbidden, but a 
narrow street, the Strada Stretta, was pointed out to us as the place 
where the knights used to go to settle their quarrels at the point of the 
sword, the theory being that they met in the narrow street and brushed 
against each other. The knights were wealthy, as many rich men 
joined the order and contributed to the 
common fund ; and in addition to the 
private contributions there were public 
ones, which came from various com- 
manderies throughout Europe, and 
from kings, emperors, and many pri- 
vate individuals, who felt it their duty 
as well as their privilege to aid the 
organization 'that had done and was 
doing so much in defending the cause 
of Christianity against the infidel.' 

" Immediately after the retirement 
of the Turks from this great and final 
attempt at the capture of Malta, the 
City of Valletta was founded. Pre- 
vious to this the knights dwelt prin- 
cipally at Citta Yecchia, in the middle 

of the island ; but La Yallette decided that a better position was on this 
promontory, which could be more easily fortified than Citta Yecchia, 
and secured against attack. During his lifetime the fortifications 
were made very strong ; the various grand masters who succeeded La 
Yallette strengthened the old fortifications and built ncAv ones, and all 




EFFIGY OF A KNIGHT. 



4:14: THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

combined in a comprehensive plan so as to make the place impregnable. 
Many distinguished men served as grand masters of the Knights of 
Malta, and for more than two centuries the order was a power 
throughout Europe. The first blow at its existence was struck during 
the French Revolution at the end of the last century, w^hen the pos- 
sessions of the order in France, which comprised more than two-thirds 
of the whole revenue, were cut off by order of the Government. 

" In the year 1798 the French obtained possession of Malta through 
treachery, the gates being opened for their troops to march in. So 
strong were the fortifications that the general who took possession re- 
marked, ' It is Avell that some one was inside to open the gates to us. 
We should otherwise have had some difficulty in entering, even if the 
place had been altogether empty.' The French plundered the church 
and charitable institutions, and behaved so badly that a popular insur- 
rection took place against them. The English came to the aid of the 
citizens, and the French w^ere shut in a fort, where they were starved 
into an unconditional surrender on September 5, 1800. 

" From that time England has remained in full possession of Malta 
and what it contained. The Order of the Knights was virtually 
broken up ; since 1800 it has retained a shadowy existence only, and is 
recognized in a formal way by but one of the powers of Europe. Over 
the forts which were built by the knights the British flag now Avaves, 
and Great Britain holds the island as one of its most important military 
and naval stations in the circle it has drawn around the globe. 

" At almost every step we have taken on the island we see traces of 
the knights. Portraits of their grand masters look down upon us 
from the walls of the hotels and many other places. The Maltese cross 
greets us everywhere in silver filigree, in gold, and in other materials 
of less value. We have seen many houses that were built by the 
knights, and have looked through several of them. In the Strada 
Mercanti we were shown the site of their cemetery, and farther up the 
street the military hospital which was founded by one of the grand 
masters very soon after the knights came here. 

'' An old writer tells us that this hospital was ' the very glory of 
Malta.' Every patient had two beds and a wardrobe with lock and 
key to himself. No more than two people were put in one ward, and 
these were waited on by the ' Serving Brothers,' who brought the food 
of the patients on silver dishes, and supplied them with the finest wines 
that they could order or the doctors permitted them to have. You can 
realize the size of the hospital when I tell you that one of its rooms is 



HOSPITAL AND PRISON. 



415 



480 feet long. It is still kept as a hospital, but the patients are not 
served upon silver dishes or freely supplied with wines, and the nurses 
do not belong to the Order of the Knights of Malta. 

'' Another relic of the knights is the Castellania, or prison, and there 
are evidences that imprisonment there was not the most comfortable 




OFF TO PALESTINE. 



thing in the world. There is a pillory in which culprits did penance, 
and they showed us a place where prisoners were suspended by the 
hands by way of punishment. They also showed us, in the rear of the 
dockyard terrace, several dungeons hewn out of the solid rock, and the 
extent of these dungeons led us to suppose that the knights must have 
numbered a good many refractory individuals in their order, I made 



416 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

a remark to that effect to the custodian, who replied that these were 
not prisons like the Castellania, but the places where the knights kept 
their galley-slaves, sometimes two or three thousand of them, who were 
required to work on the fortifications. They were Turks and Moors 
captured by the war-ships of the knights, and brought here and put to 
work, according to the custom of the times. It happened that one 
of the Turkish commanders in the great siege was captured a year or 
two later, and brought to Malta to work as a galley-slave. When 
Malta was surrendered to the French nearly five thousand Turkish 
prisoners were liberated, besides many others. 

" When they lived at Ehodes, and afterwards at Malta, the knights 
were divided into nationalities or ' Languages,' and each language had 
its ' Auberge,' which was really a palace on the prmciple of a club- 
house. The auberge of the language of Italy is now occupied by the 
Eoyal Engineers, and the auberge of France is devoted to the head of 
the commissary department. All the knightly hotels have been ap- 
propriated to Government uses in one form or another, except the 
auberge of Germany, on whose site a church has been built, and the 
auberge of England, which has given way for a new theatre." 

While Frank was busy with the history of Malta and its famous 
warriors, Fred and Mary turned their attention to the Church of St. 
John, which was built by the knights, and served as a tomb for many 
of them. Concerning this church we will listen to Fred, who wrote 
a description of it as follows : 

" The exterior of the church," said Fred, " is not at all remarkable. 
One writer has said of it that it represents in its external appearance 
the dignity and solidity of the knights by whom it was erected. The 
first stone of its foundation was laid in 1573 by a Maltese architect, 
under the direction of La Cossiere, who Avas grand master at that time, 
and the building was sufficiently advanced towards completion to be 
consecrated five years later. La Cossiere gave liberally towards the 
embellishment of the church, and the grand masters who succeeded him 
followed his example. A rule was established that every knight was 
required on his promotion to make a present to the church, and as the 
presents were liberal the building became very rich in its interior. 

" The pavement is the first thing that attracts the visitor's attention 
after he passes the doorway and is inside the building. It is unlike the 
pavement of any church we have ever seen, and contains about four 
hundred sepulchral slabs or tombstones. These slabs are of marble, and 
of every color in which that stone has been found ; they have been 



CHURCH OF ST. JOHN. 



417 



placed here in memory of the knights, and adorned with their coats of 
arms, heraldic emblems, and other things. On them we found repre- 
sentations of military and naval trophies, weapons of war, instruments 
of music, figures of angels, palms and crowns of martyrs, together with 
grotesque representations of skeletons and other symbols peculiar to the 
time in which those whose memory is preserved here lived and walked the 
earth. It should be borne in mind that the Knights of Malta came from 
the best families of Europe, more particularly from those of France. 
There were a few English knights among them, but not many, and the 




IN THE DAYS OF CHIVALRY. 



order was suppressed in England, afterwards renewed, and again sup- 
pressed. As we looked at the tombstones we found family names that 
have been illustrious in history, together with others that have long 
been extinct and are never heard nowadays. 

" There are some admirable paintings in the chapels of the church, 
and they show that the knights had a love for art equal to their fond- 
ness for war. The chapels are adorned with monuments, grouped 
according to the nationalities of those whose deeds they commemorate. 
One chapel was dedicated to the Portuguese, and contains monuments 
of the grand masters who came from Portugal. The Spanish chapel 
has monuments of four grand masters, and another chapel contains 
keys of towns which were captured from the Turks, 

2Y 



418 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

" The custodian of the building took us beneath the church, where we 
saw the tombs of La Yallette and others of the grand masters. We saw 
also a collection of sacred relics, which were highly prized by the knights 
and are still preserved with the greatest care. Among these relics is a 
thorn from the crown placed on the head of the Saviour before the 
crucifixion, and a fragment of the Cradle in which He lay at Bethlehem. 
Over the altar is a crucifix which is said to have been made from the 
basin used by the Saviour when He washed the feet of the Apostles. A 
considerable quantity of gold and silver vessels of great value is said to 
have been stolen by the French revolutionists when they took possession 
of the city, but happily there was among the marauders sufficient 
respect for the church to save it from destruction. In spite of the rob- 
bery there are many antique crosses, jewels, and other precious things, 
which are carefully guarded against the possibilities of theft. 

" The roof of the church is beautifully decorated in oil-paintings 
that were laid directly on the stones, instead of being painted on canvas 
in the usual way. These paintings are the work of Matthias Preti, who 
came to Malta in 1661, and died there eight years later ; he devoted 
the time of his residence in Valletta to the ornamentation of the 
church, and especially of the roof. The paintings of the roof are di- 
vided into seven compartments ; the subjects are scriptural, and the por- 
traits of many of the knights appear in the pictures. A peculiar effect 
of the painting is that the figures seem to stand out in bold relief, and 
present a most life-like appearance. At the time of the occupation of 
Malta by the French the pictures were somewhat damaged and portions 
of the pavement were injured ; the paintings and pavement have been 
carefully restored since the English occupation, the restorations being 
so perfect that it is impossible to distinguish them from the original 
work. Some of them appear to have been made quite recently. 

'' The grand master of the knights had a magnificent residence, 
which is now the Governor's Palace. It forms one side of the palace 
square, and is divided into two courts, planted with orange and lemon 
trees, together with other arboreal products suited to the climate of the 
island. The Government offices occupy the ground-floor, and there are 
wide corridors paved with marble, and with their walls ornamented with 
portraits of the knights from the time of the Crusades down to the 
present. All the grand masters and governors who ever ruled over 
Malta are here represented, and there are also pictures that represent 
the exploits of the war -galleys and other ships belonging to the 
knights, and they were evidently quite numerous. 




THE CHURCH OF ST. JOHN. 



420 



THE BOY TKAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



"In the Council- chamber we saw tapestries which were made at 
Brussels and Paris, and brought here from time to time. The Hall of 
Saints Michael and George is a magnificent ball-room ; formerly it Avas 
a throne-room, and it receives its name from the fact that it was the 

scene of the investiture of the 
Knights of the Order of Saints Mi- 
chael and George. This order was 
created in 1818, and was originally 
confined to residents in Malta and 
the Ionian Isles, but is now extended 
to all the colonies of Great Britain. 

" The most interesting room that 
we visited in the palace w^as the 
Armory, which is filled with trophies 
and specimens of arms and armor of 
many ages. In the centre of the 
room are ^ve large cases, containing 
the batons of La Yallette and other 
grand masters, the sword and axe of 
Dragut, the officer who was second 
in command in the great siege of 
Malta by the Turks, and afterwards 
worked as a galley-slave on the for- 
tifications of Valletta. One thing 
which specially attracted the atten- 
tion of us all was the silver trumpet 
which sounded the retreat of the 
knights from Khodes. It is worn and 
battered, and has been broken and 
mended; but there is no single article 
in the collection that is more highly 
prized than this. As we stood before it I imagined that I could see 
the tears rolling down the cheeks of the grand master as he ordered 
the retreat to be sounded, and the bowed heads and sad faces of the 
knights as they obeyed the command which Avas given by the trump- 
eter's notes. If I were allowed to choose anything in Malta as a souve- 
nir, my choice would certainly fall on this trumpet, but there is little 
likelihood that any visitor will ever be permitted to remove it. In 
another case is the original bull creating the order of the knights, and 
near it is the original grant of Malta given by Charles Y. 




GOING TO MASS. 



_^^^^.^^.T^-rg2;^k 




governor's palace. 



" There is a tower on the top of the palace which is now used as a 
station for signalling the arrival and departure of ships ; it was erected 
by one of the grand masters for that very purpose, and also as an ob- 
servatory. We ascended to the tower and had a splendid view of the 
city and its harbors, together with the interior of the island. It is an 
excellent point of observation, and in the troubled times in which they 
lived I am sure that the knights maintained a sharp watch at this 
point at all hours of the day and night. 

" Speaking of the departure and arrival of ships reminds me of some 
figures which Mr. Clapp has given me on this subject. Last year the 
arrivals of steamers at Malta were three thousand two hundred and 
eighty -one, and of sailing-vessels one thousand three hundred and 
ninety-six. From those figures you can readily understand that Malta 
is a place of great commercial importance. Steamers call here on their 
way through the Mediterranean, and there are several lines running 
from the southern part of Europe that visit Malta with great regu- 
larity and afford easy communication. 

" Yesterday one of the Peninsular and Oriental steamers arrived in 
port and remained several hours. The arrival of one of these vessels is 
a matter of great importance to the dealers in coral, silver filigree work, 
lace, sponges, birds, and other products of the island. As the steamer 
came in we happened to be where we could observe the boats crowding 
around her, and the peddlers climbing to her decks as soon as they 
were permitted to do so. Many of the passengers came on shore; 
those that remained on board were the special prey of the dealers from 



422 .THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

the boats, while those who landed were enticed into the shops to make 
purchases wherever enticement was possible. 

" We are told that whenever the steamers to or from India arrive 
later in the day than usual, the shops are kept open much beyond the 
regular hour for closing ; in fact, as long as any passengers are on 
shore they have every opportunity to purchase the curiosities for which 
the island is famous. The Maltese are very sharp at driving a bargain ; 
most of them have the Oriental habit of asking much more for their 
wares than they expect to receive, and it is not unusual for a stranger 
to pay twice or even three times as much for an article as would be 
demanded from a resident. 

" Mr. Clapp took us to the Fort of St. Elmo, and accompanied us 
through this very interesting fortress. He showed us the little chapel 
where the knights partook of the viaticum, and then embraced one 
another before going out to what they supposed would be their death. 
Its locality was long unknown, and it was discovered only a few years 
ago by one of the officers who was superintending the removal of some 
rubbish. We remained several minutes in this little chapel, and were 
silent as we thought of the mournful scene which took place there three 
centuries ago when the warriors went forth to die. 

" I must not forget to mention that the visitor in Malta must climb 
a good many stairs. The peninsula on which Valletta is built is a high 
one, and the Strada Eeale may be said to lie along its backbone. There 
are other streets parallel to the principal one, and then there are cross 
streets leading either way down to the water. The Strada Eeale and 
its parallels are by no means level, and some of them are so steep in 
places as to require steps here and there, while the vertebral streets 
which run from the backbone to the harbors are at a steep angle, and 
some of them almost continuous stairways. An American visitor once 
remarked of Valletta that it ought to be one of the healthiest cities in 
the world, as it certainly had a splendid opportunity for drainage. 

" It is very fatiguing work in a hot day to ascend these flights of 
stairs, and occasionally strangers are afflicted with sunstroke in conse- 
quence. The natives have a saying that only Englishmen and mad 
dogs venture to walk up these Maltese stairs in the sun." 

Our young friends made various inquiries relative to the population 
of Malta and its mode of government. They ascertained that the 
island has about 140,000 inhabitants, and Gozo about 20,000. The 
small island of Comino is practically uninhabited. Frank made note 
of the fact that Malta was the most densely peopled country in the 



4:2i 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



world, its area being about ninety-five square miles, so that there are 
1450 inhabitants to each square mile. Excluding the portion of the 
island which is unsuited to cultivation, the population reaches the 
enormous figure of 2000 per square mile. Notwithstanding this large 
population there is comparatively little actual want and destitution 
among the Maltese, although there is a good deal of poverty. 

The financial position of Malta is a very fortunate one. There is no 
public debt, but, on the contrary, the Maltese have a considerable 
amount of surplus revenue invested in the English funds. They have 
absolutely no direct taxes to pay ; all the expenditures for public 
works, roads, streets, hospitals, and administration generally are paid 
by the Government out of the revenue derived from the rentals of 
Government property and from the customs. Malta is nominally a 
free port, but there are duties upon various articles of import, so that 
the revenue from customs is about $700,000 annually, while the rental 
of Government property is about $200,000. 




%#^ 



A SPECIMEN OF LACE. 



CHAPTEK XXIII. 

HOW THE MALTESE LIVE.— HIGH WALLS AROUND FIELDS AND GARDENS.— FER- 
TILITY OF THE SOIL, AND ITS PRODUCTS.— THE WATER SUPPLY.— MANNER 
OF HOLDING REAL ESTATE.— PERPETUAL AND LONG-TERM LEASES.— MODES 
OF AGRICULTURE.— MALTESE ANIMALS.— EXPORT OF CATS.— INDUSTRIES OF 
MALTA.— FILIGREE WORK IN GOLD AND SILVER.— MALTESE COTTON GOODS.— 
IN A PRIVATE RESIDENCE.— MARY'S ACCOUNT OF THE MALTA RAILWAY.— 
AN ACCOMPLISHED CONDUCTOR.— HOW THE TRAINS ARE RUN.— THE PEOPLE 
AND THEIR LANGUAGE. — AN INLAND EXCURSION. — CITTA VECCHIA AND 
CATHEDRAL OF ST. PAUL. — HOUSE WHERE THE APOSTLE LIVED. —CATA- 
COMBS.— PLACE WHERE ST. PAUL WAS WRECKED. — ISLAND OF GOZO. — 
ROMAN RUINS.— GAY LIFE OF FASHIONABLE MALTA.— FRANK AND FRED IN 
THE UNION CLUB. — DEPARTURE FROM MALTA. — THE RIVIERA AND THE 
CORNICE ROAD.— SCENES ALONG THE ROUTE. 




WHEN our friends learned of the 
density of the population of Malta 
they wondered how the people managed 
to live, and questioned their well-informed 
host, Mr. Clapp, on the subject. 

" As you approached Malta," said Mr. 
Clapp, replying to the inquiries of Frank 
and Fred, "you observed that the island 
appeared to be very little else than a 
mass of rock, did you not?" 

" Yes," answered Frank ; '' it seemed 
to be a place of almost complete sterility. 
We could see very little vegetation, but a great deal of barren rock." 

"What you supposed to be barren rock," was the response, "was 
not so by any means. The gardens and fields of Malta are very small, 
and surrounded by high walls, which are very often seven or eight 
feet in height. The object of these walls is to prevent the destruction 
of trees and garden crops by violent winds which sometimes blow here, 
and the result of this arrangement is that from a distance nothing 
green is visible, and the whole island looks like a great stone quarry. 



A YOUNG NATIVE. 



426 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

There are many oranges and lemons grown in these gardens. Great 
crops of wheat are raised and very fine potatoes are produced, together 
with other garden vegetables, and the soil, wherever there is any, is 
very fertile. You can ride from one end of the island to the other, 
and see nothing but high walls, and though there may be gardens 
everywhere, you would hardly be aware of their existence. We have 
figs, peaches, melons, grapes, pomegranates, strawberries, apples, pears, 
and other fruits in abundance in their season, and with some quickly 
growing vegetables, two or even three crops are obtained from the 
soil in a single year. You have seen in the court-yards of the Gov- 
ernor's Palace and other places in and around the city how luxuriant 
the vegetation is, and before you leave us I shall show you something 
of the products of the interior of the island." 

Frank asked if the island was well supplied with water at all times. 

'' That is a difficult question to answer by yes or no," was the reply. 
" There is a goodly quantity of water on the island ; the annual rain- 
fall averages about eighteen inches a year, and in many houses the 
water is collected in cisterns as it falls from the clouds. In certain 
parts of the island there is excellent water on the surface, coming 
from springs along the hills. There is a vast quantity of water lower 
down, which is pumped up through iron pipes and carried to the aque- 
ducts, so that a good supply can be obtained at all times in this way. 
We have no forests in Malta, though we have a few groups of trees that 
we sometimes jocularly denominate forests. There are plantations of 
trees, as I have told you, which are surrounded by walls, and thus hid- 
den from the sight of one who travels along the roads." 

"How is the rural property of Malta owned and held?" Fred 
inquired, as his host came to a pause. 

" It may be said to be shared between the Government, the Church, 
and private individuals. Its cultivation is left in the hands of the 
peasants, to whom the proprietor leases his land for a period of from 
four to eight years. Some of the lands are rented on longer terms and 
some on perpetual lease. This system of long or perpetual leases was 
adopted at one time by the Government, which is the principal propri- 
etor of the lands. In this way agriculture is encouraged, as the Gov- 
ernment sometimes puts up for sale for a merely nominal value por- 
tions of public grounds which are of no practical use or profit. The 
peasants obtaining these lands manage by the most persistent industry 
to transform them into fertile fields, and in this way the humbler citi- 
zens become landed proprietors and persons of dignity." 



428 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

"I suppose you don't use the latest patents in agricultural imple- 
ments, such as mowers and reapers, do you ?" queried Frank. 

" ^ot by any means," replied Mr. Clapp, with a smile. " Our fields 
would not warrant anything of the kind; McCormick's mower and 
reaper, and other famous implements of farming on a large scale, would 
have no ground on which to move about in Malta. Our ploughs, 
spades, harrows, and other tools are very antiquated in character. The 
Maltese peasant is entirely satisfied with them, and he can accomplish 
a great deal with these rude implements. He is content to use the 
tools that were used by his father and grandfather, and it is very difii- 
cult to get him to depart from the ordinary custom. 

" The most common products of the country are wheat, cotton, fruit, 
and garden vegetables. The cotton industry is less flourishing than for- 
merly, owing to the low price obtained for the article. During the 
Civil War in America it rose to such a high price that it was very gen- 
erally grown all through the island, but at present it is simply planted 
to furnish material for our cotton goods, in which there is a small ex- 
port trade. Two crops of potatoes can be grown in a year, and the 
same is the case with some other garden vegetables. The grape-vine is 
cultivated in some parts of Malta and Gozo, but the product is not very 
extensive. We raise cattle, sheep, goats, horses, mules, pigs, and other 
domestic animals, and Ave also raise dogs and cats, the latter being real 
genuine Maltese cats, but they are of no very great commercial value. 
Occasionally a cat is exported, but she is not subject to duty and does 
not figure in the returns of the Board of Trade." 

In regard to the industries of Malta, our friends learned that there 
was considerable work in precious metals, the most valuable production 
being in gold and silver filigree. The cost of the precious metals thus 
converted into ornaments is about two hundred thousand dollars an- 
nually, and the industry gives employment to about five hundred labor- 
ers. The cotton industry is one of the most common as well as one of 
the most ancient industries of the island. The cotton is spun by hand 
or machinery and woven into coarse or thick cloth, which is partl}^ 
used for sails and partly exported to the northern coast of Africa and 
Turkey, where it is used for clothing. Formerly the Maltese cottons 
were exported to Italy and some countries of Western Europe, but the 
trade in that direction has fallen off, owing to the heavy duties levied 
by Italy and France for the protection of their home industries. 

There is a considerable industry in Malta in the preservation of 
fruits, and for this purpose alcohol, sugar, and vinegar are imported 



430 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

from England and other countries. Lace-making is an occupation for 
^\e thousand women and girls of Malta, and the Maltese lace has ac- 
quired a world-wide reputation. There are several kinds of it, some of 
cotton, some of linen, and some of silk thread. The black-and-white 
silk lace is the most famous of the different kinds made in the Maltese 
islands. The style is half Moorish and half Chinese, and its beauty 
consists in the skill with which it is wrought. 

According to promise, our friends were transferred from the hotel 
to Mr. Clapp's house on the Strada Mercanti, and they privately inform 
us that they were made very comfortable during the whole of their stay. 

'* We were told," said Mary, " that the house and all it contained 
were ours. This is a formal politeness borrowed from the Spanish, but 
it was more nearly true in a literal sense than is often the case in 
strange houses. Our host and hostess were untiring in their efforts to 
amuse and interest us, and at the same time we were at liberty to come 
and go as we hked. The house is delightfully situated, and from the 
upper part of it there is an admirable view of the harbor and the shore 
beyond. As we went about the building I half-expected every moment 
to meet one of the Knights of Malta dressed in his armor and ready to 
go out to battle against the Turks. The knights are gone, but the 
knightly spirit remains in Malta, as we have good reason to know." 

On the morning after the settlement of our friends in their new 
quarters their host proposed to take them on a railway journey to the 
interior of the island. They promptly accepted the invitation, and pro- 
ceeded to the station at the time he indicated. We will let Mary tell 
the story of the journey that they made. 

" It's a funny little railway," said the girl, "and has a funny history, 
at least to us, though not to those who built it. Years ago some Eng- 
lish capitalists thought it would be a profitable investment to build a 
railway from Valletta to the other end of the island opposite Gozo. 
They constructed seven miles of the road as far as Notabile at a cost of 
four hundred thousand dollars, and after running it a while, and finding 
they could not make it pay expenses, they abandoned it. By the terms 
of their concession the whole of the property w^as to fall into the hands 
of the Government if at any time the railway should not be run for a 
year. AVhen a year without any trains had passed, the Government 
came into possession of the road, and by an investment of forty thou- 
sand dollars the line was put into good order, equipped with rolling 
stock, and set in operation. Thus the Government has a railway all 
complete at a cost of less than six thousand dollars a mile. 



A MINIATURE RAILWAY. 



431 



'' There are eight stations in the seven miles of distance, and the ex- 
press or ' fast ' trains run through from Valletta to I^otabile in forty 
minutes, or at the rate of about eleven miles an hour. The way -trains 
are a good deal slower. The road is run in the Hungarian or ' zone ' 
system, and is divided into two zones of three and a half miles each. 
In the first zone the first-class fare is twopence (four cents) to any sta- 
tion, and it is twopence more to any station in the second zone. They 
have cheap trains, with the low fare of one penny, from Yalletta to 
I^otabile or any intermediate point. That is certainly cheap enough — 
two cents for seven miles. It beats our elevated railway in J^ew York. 




ROAD TO CITTA YECCHIA. 



" They run ten regular trains daily each way. A few weeks ago, on 
the occasion of a great festival at Notabile, trains were run every twenty 
minutes, and the day's receipts came to the enormous sum of $200 ! 
They have three locomotives, but only two are in daily use, the third 
being kept as an extra. They have two engineers, three firemen, three 
conductors, and other employes in proportion, their whole salary list, 
including the manager, book-keeper, and everybody else, amounting to 
less than $8000 a year. The conductor of the train on which we went 
to Notabile spoke English, Maltese, and Italian fluently, and for all 
these accomplishments, in addition to acting as conductor, he receives 
$l-a day, boards himself, and pays for his uniform. 

" There ! that will do for a girl's account of a railway. Don't you 
think it is a fairly good one ? You see, I made my first attempt on a 
small road ; perhaps by-and-by I will undertake to describe a great one. 



432 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

" The fluency of our conductor in three languages reminds me that 
the Maltese are almost equal to the Kussians in their facility for acquir- 
ing foreign tongues. Their own language is a curious one, as it is a 
mixture of Arabic and Italian with the ancient Phoenician ; the Arabic 
is the principal ingredient in it, and it is said that the Maltese can con- 
verse fairly well with the Arabs from the Barbary coast. The official 
language of the island is Italian ; this seems a little strange w^hen the 
Government has been British for nearly a century, and the enlightened 
part of the Maltese population are in favor of the establishment of Eng- 
lish as the official tongue — or, at all events, of its being placed on an 
equal footing with Italian. Perhaps it will be some day. 

" The laws of Malta are based upon the laws of the island that Avere 
in force before the Knights of St. John came here. The story is that 
the inhabitants refused to receive the knights until they agreed to 
allow the retention of the old laws and customs. Gradually the laws 
were modified by the knights, and afterwards by the British governors 
and the local legislature. Trial by jury was introduced in 1829, and 
was at first applied to a very few cases ; but it is now applied to all 
crimes, and has become popular with the inhabitants. 

''But I am forgetting our excursion to Notabile, which is also called 
Citta Yecchia. It is very prettily situated in the middle of the island, 
and it deserves its name (Citta Yecchia, Old City), as it is certainly very 
ancient. It w^as celebrated m the time of Cicero for its cotton manu- 
facture, and in the first century of the Christian era it was the resi- 
dence of St. Paul the Apostle, during a part of his stay on the island. 
It was a flourishing city until Valletta was founded, and to-day it con- 
tains a good many palaces, most of them being occupied as convents or 
schools, or for other purposes than those for which palaces are usually 
built. Most of them are very well preserved. 

" We visited the Cathedral of St. Paul, which is said to stand on 
the spot where the apostle lived in the house of Publius. The Norman 
knights built a cathedral here in the tw^elfth century, but it was en- 
tirely destroyed by an earthquake five hundred years later ; the present 
cathedral was built in the early part of the eighteenth century, and is a 
very handsome building, yet there is nothing specially remarkable 
about it. There are some paintings in it referring to incidents in the 
life of St. Paul and also of St. Publius, who is said to have been con- 
verted by Paul, and suffered martyrdom in consequence of his conver- 
sion to the new religion which Paul introduced. 

'' From the church we went to the Catacombs, which are not far 



43tl: THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

away. They reminded us of the Catacombs of Rome ; the walls have 
no decorations upon them, but otherwise the place is of the same gen- 
eral character as that of the Catacombs we have seen elsewhere. Close 
to the Catacombs is a grotto over which has been built a small church ; 
this grotto is supposed to have been the residence of St. Paul for a 
short time, and is consequently greatly venerated. There is a marble 
statue of the saint in the middle of the grotto, and we found several of 
the people kneeling before it and saying their prayers. 

" This is a good place to remark that the native inhabitants of Malta 
are almost entirely Catholics. To judge from what we have seen I 
Avould say that the Avoraen are more devoted to their religion than the- 
men. We strolled into the church one morning during the service, and 
in the congregation of two hundred people I don't think there were 
more than twenty men. On behalf of the latter it inay be said that 
many of them are away in their occupations as fishermen and boatmen^ 
and consequently they were unable to be present at the services. It 
is the policy of the Government to make no interference with the 
religion of the people ; on the contrary, every facility is given to the 
Catholic clergy for the exercise of their offices, and the least interfer- 
ence with any religious denomination whatever is severely punished. 

" There is an English church at Valletta and another in the Sliema 
suburb, and there are several chapels in the forts and elsewhere, where 
service after the British form is held on Sundays. The Scotch Presby- 
terians have a church, and there is an orthodox Greek Church in the 
Strada Mercanti, so that members of any Christian denomination can 
find opportunities for worship. The conversion of the inhabitants to 
Christianity is said to have taken place during the stay of St. Paul ; at 
all events, it had its commencement at that time, and it was not long 
after the death of the apostle before the whole island had been con- 
verted and was practically Christian. 

" Hearing so much about St. Paul, we naturally wished to visit the 
bay where he was wrecked ; we went there on the day following our 
visit to Notabile, and had a delightful excursion. It is a very pretty 
bay, with an entrance two miles wide running inland for nearly three 
miles, and we were told that there was good anchorage all over it. On 
the shore is a tower which was erected in 1610 by the grand master of 
the knights at that time, who laid the foundation-stone on February 
10th, the supposed anniversary of the shipwreck. There was a great 
ceremonial on that occasion, the grand master coming on horseback 
from Valletta, attended by a body of the knights dressed in their re- 



WHERE ST. PAUL WAS WRECKED. 



435 



galia. The clergy was also there in full force, and the stone was laid 
amid great ceremonies, the cost of the tower being paid for out of the 
personal funds of the grand master. There is a small church here, which 
w^as also built in 1610 on the spot where a much older one had stood ; 



t 




A MEDITERRANEAN BOAT. 



it contains several frescos and paintings representing the shipwreck, 
and the tradition is that the church stands on the exact spot where the 
inhabitants of the island lighted the fire and showed kindness to the 
shipwrecked people. There was then a fishing-village here, and there is 
one now, and the probabilities are that the appearance of the place has 
changed very little in eighteen hundred years." 

While the party was standing near the church, Frank took from his 
pocket a copy of the New Testament and read from it the account of 
the shipwreck of Paul. Our readers who are curious concerning it are 
referred to the Acts of the Apostles, chapters xxvii. and xxviii. 

From St. Paul's Bay the party proceeded to Marfa, at the end of 
Malta, whence they crossed in a small boat to the Island of Gozo. The 



436 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



channel is some four or five miles in width, and as the wind was favor- 
able the passage was made in little more than half an hour. There is 
not much to be seen on the island except some ruins, which are more 
interesting to the archaeologist than to the ordinary traveller, includ- 
ing a Koman villa recently excavated. It was not considered judicious 
to spend the night there, and so our friends remained but an hour or so 
on the island, and then returned by steamboat direct from Gozo to 
Valletta. It was well they did not stop until the following day, as the 
wind rose, and by sunrise it blew a gale, so that passage across the 
channel by small boats was impossible or certainly dangerous. 

Before their departure from Malta our friends concluded that it was 
a gay place. There were dinners, receptions, picnic-parties, and similar 
entertainments almost daily, and sometimes in the winter season those 
who move in the social circles are obliged to attend several of these 
affairs in the same day. A picnic in the afternoon is followed by a 
dinner, the dinner by an opera, and the opera by a ball or reception. 
There is hardly a day without a polo match, a game at football, cricket, 




ST. Paul's bay, island of malta. 



or lawn -tennis, a horse-race, or something else of the kind. They 
have polo matches in Malta three times a week, parades, regimental 
inspections, sham-fights, naval manoeuvres, military and naval athletic 
sports, private and public theatricals, dinners, receptions, garden-parties, 
lawn-tennis games, and balls without stint. 



438 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

At the reception which our friends attended in the Governors Pal- 
ace there was a gay assemblage, all the society of Malta, official and 
unofficial, being present. Many attentions were shown to the visitors, 
and they came away with the impression that they had met some of 
the most delightful people in the world. Their host made a " pop-corn 
party " in their honor, inviting the American consul and every other 
American then in Malta, together with many of his personal friends of 
British nationality. The consul invited them to a picnic at a favorite 
resort a short distance in the country, and they found the assemblage 
as delightful as the weather, and it w^as universally remarked that the 
weather that day was of the very best kind ever known in Malta. 
This was followed the next day by a garden-party at Villa Zammit, the 
country residence of Mr. Clapp, and one of the finest villas on the island. 

Frank and Fred received cards of admission to the Union Club, and 
were made thoroughly at home there. The club is composed of offi- 
cers of the Army and I^avy, and of gentlemen residing in Malta. The 
club-house is a spacious one, and in some of their features the clubs of 
Malta seem to follow in the footsteps of their predecessors, the " Lan- 
guages" of the knights. The Union Club building is luxuriantly fur- 
nished, and the members live on the best that the market affords. Un- 
like the knights, they give dances and receptions during the fashionable 
season, and these affairs are keen but friendly rivals of the entertain- 
ments of the Governor and other high officials. One of the club dances 
took place while our friends were in Malta, and Frank said they all en- 
joyed it so much that it was nearly sunrise before they got home. 

All good things must come to an end ; and one afternoon our friends 
said farewell to their genial host and hostess, and farewell to the City 
of the Knights. The steamer which was to carry them away was 
ready in the harbor, and as they went on board each one of the quar- 
tet expressed an emphatic wish to visit the island again. 

As they steamed out of the harbor and headed to the northward 
our friends watched the rocky island as it faded in the distance, grow- 
ing less and less in size as the ship receded from it. While they thus 
sat and studied the scene Mrs. Bassett remarked : 

'' I have been so busy with what we have seen and done during our 
stay at Malta, and our hosts were so kind to us, that I forgot to ask 
where we w^ere going next. I would like to know now, if you ^v^ill tell 
me, what our destination is ; I presume you have arranged it." 

" Certainly, mamma," replied Frank ; " our destination will be where 
you wished it to be, or as nearly so as we could make it." 



TO THE SOUTH OF FRANCE. 



439 



" How is that ?" queried Mrs. Bassett, in a tone of surprise. 

" Why, you have several times said you wanted to see the Kiviera, 
as they call the shore of the Mediterranean between Genoa and Nice. 
To comply with your desire, we have arranged to go there." 




VIEW ON THE CORNICE ROAD. 



" Oh, thank you ever so much," was the reply ; " and where are we 
going — I mean, where do we leave the steamer ?" 

" It was our intention to go to Marseilles, and visit the Riviera from 
that point," Frank replied ; " but we should have been obliged to wait 
several days for a French steamer. So Fred and I changed our plan 
a little and took this steamer, an Italian one, which is bound for 
Oenoa." 



440 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

" Oh, I understand," said Mrs. Bassett. " We will land at Genoa 
and take the train westward for the Kiviera. Am I right ?" 

" Yes, that is it exactly," Frank explained. " As we have seen Gen- 
oa, we will not stop there at all. If the time suits on our arrival, we 
^Yil\ go directly from the steamer to the railway station, and at furthest 
our stay in Genoa la Superb will only be for a few hours." 

The steamer held her course to the northward between Sicily and 
Sardinia, stopping for two or three hours at Cagliari, and reaching Gen- 
oa without any incident of consequence. Fortune favored our friends, 
on their arrival at Genoa, as they had just sufficient time to go to the 
station and catch an express train westward. Fred suggested that 
they try the Cornice (Cornichy) Koad instead of the railway, but Frank 
overruled him on this point for a variety of reasons. He knew that his 
mother would not like the fatigue of the journey by carriage along the 
road, and, besides, the hire of carriages since the opening of the rail- 
way is so infrequent that a good service is not maintained. Carriages- 
are dear, and many tricks are played upon travellers to extort the high- 
est figures possible from those who make the journey by them. When 
the subject w^as mentioned to Mrs. Bassett she said she was quite con- 
tent w^ith the railway, but, as a matter of curiosity, would like to know 
what w^as to be seen along this famous way. 

"I will endeavor to describe it briefly," replied Fred. "The Cor- 
nice Road, or Route de la Corniche, is a very old road, and was built long 
before the railway was thought of. It follows the coast all the way 
from Genoa to Nice ; I don't mean that it is exactly on the shore of 
the Mediterranean for every mile of its distance, or even for a half of it ; 
but to all intents and purposes it may be called a coast road. It winds 
up and down the mountain-sides, sometimes coming literally to the sea 
where the configuration of the land facilitates its doing so, and then 
where high promontories jut out the road rises to a height of perhaps 
a thousand or fifteen hundred feet above the level of the water. The 
Romans had a road there long and long ago, but the present one was. 
made by Napoleon I. after his conquest of Italy. 

" There is a great variety of scenery along the Cornice Road ; some- 
times you are among rugged mountains where very little vegetation is 
visible on the rocks, then you are among wooded hills, and then per- 
haps among cultivated plains near the sea-shore. In some places the 
cliffs are so bold that you can stand on the edge of the road several 
hundred feet above the sea-level, and toss a biscuit or coin into the waves, 
as they break below — that is, if you want to do so. 




PONT ST. LOUIS, CORNICE ROAD. 



" The summits of many of the chffs are crowned with ancient tow- 
ers and forts, which were erected for purposes of defence in by-gone 
ages, when the Mediterranean swarmed with pirate craft, and all ex- 
posed places along its shores were subject to depredations. We shall 
see some of these towers as we pass along the railway. A few of them 
are still kept in repair, but by far the greater number are in ruins." 



442 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

" Are the towns situated on these high hills or nearer the water V 
queried Mrs. Bassett. " I presume it was generally necessary to put 
the towns where the pirates could not reach them without running the 
risk of capture or the loss of their ships." 

"That is the case with some of the towns," replied Frank, "but not 
by any means with all. Some are perched high up among the rocks 
^nd are quite difficult of access; among them I may mention Kocca 
Br una and Eza, and some towns that were thus situated have gone to 
ruin in modern times, owing to their being so far out of the way. Most 
of the towns along the shore are situated on sloping heights, and with 
some of them there is so little space between the mountains and the 
sea that when you look at them they seem to be trying to climb the 
mountain-side, and in a fair way to succeed. 

" As one rides along the Cornice Road he sees at frequent intervals 
small chapels and churches placed among the rocks, or peering out 
from the foliage of the trees that cover the hill-sides. In the valleys 
that are crossed by the road there are plantations of olive-trees, some 
of them very extensive. The olive has been cultivated here for a very 
long time, and some of the trees are hundreds of years old. Then there 
are oranges, aloes, myrtles, oleanders, and kindred trees, and in some 
places, particularly at San Remo and Bordighera, palm-trees grow in grea't 
abundance. Altogether the ride along the Cornice Eoad is very inter- 
esting, and certainly it would be difficult to find a route that is more 
picturesque. In addition to all that I have mentioned, you have almost 
constantly a view of the sea filling the southern horizon and presenting 
many shades of color, owing to the changes which are constantly taking 
place in the sky and clouds above it." 

" If you had told me all this when you were planning the journey," 
Mrs. Bassett remarked, " I think I should have urged you to come by 
the Cornice Road instead of by railway. Isn't there a part of it we 
can see without taking the whole drive ?" 

"Certainly," said Frank, who was always ready in resources. "We 
will go from Mentone to Nice, a distance of less than twenty miles, by 
the Cornice Road, and over one of the most picturesque parts of the 
whole route ; it will be an excellent sample." 

" That will suit me exactly," was the reply. And thereupon the 
subject was dropped for the present as the train swept along. 



CHAPTEK XXiy. 

ON THE RIVIERA.— SAN REMO.— RUINED TOWERS AND THEIR HISTORY.— STORY OF 
THE PALM-TREES.— BORDIGHERA.— CUSTOM-HOUSE AT VENTIMIGLIA.— HOW 
THE EXAMINATION WAS CONDUCTED. — MENTONE ; ITS HOTELS.— HOW MEN- 
TONE WAS " DISCOVERED ;" ITS CLIMATE AND ATTRACTIONS ; WHAT MARY 
WROTE ABOUT THE PLACE. —HOTELS WITH ALL ROOMS OUTSIDE. — GARDENS 
OF MENTONE. — HOW THE RIVIERA OBTAINS ITS CLIMATE. — SCENES IN OLD 
MENTONE.— RULES ABOUT DRIVING IN THE STREETS.— DOMESTIC INTERIORS.— 
ANTIQUITY OF MENTONE. — A REVOLUTION, AND WHAT CAUSED IT. — A DES- 
POTIC PRINCE; HOW HE LEVIED TAXES. — THE BONE CAVERNS AND THEIR 
FORMER OCCUPANTS. — SCENES IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD. — LAUNDRESSES AND 
THEIR WAY OF WORKING.— OLIVE-GROVES AND OIL-MILLS. 



T 



'iil^i§^ 






•N""j#---- ,i4.,,i|lii|fc 



J f 

III, 



HHE train carried 
our friends past 
the little town of 
Cogvjleto, where, as 
the reader will re- 
member, they visit- 
ed the house which 
was said to have 
been the birthplace 
of Columbus. Be- 
yond it they went 
through several tun- 
nels, which were at 
times decidedly ex- 
asperating in the 
suddenness with 
which they cut ofiP 
the view of the 
scenery. The coun- 
try through which 
the railway carried 

the party seemed to be a very fertile one when not broken by prom- 
ontories and rocky cliffs. All the slopes, plains, and valleys were thickly 




STREET IN ROCCA BRUNA. 



414 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

planted with olive, fig, and other productive trees, and at frequent 
intervals the train passed near smiling gardens and luxuriant fields, 
containing numerous cattle that were well fed and cared for, if one could 
judge by the sleekness of their skins and the roundness of their sides. 

After passing Porto Maurizio numerous towers were seen that 
are said to have been erected for the defence of the country against 
Arab corsairs in the ninth and tenth centuries. They are needed for 
defence no longer, and those of them that have not been allowed to go 
to ruin have been fitted up as dwelling-houses. 

At San Kemo the train halted briefly, and when it moved on Mary 
asked if San Eemo was an attractive health resort. She thought she 
had seen and heard its name quite often in that connection. 

Fred replied that it was not a large place, having about ten or 
twelve thousand inhabitants, and did not come into prominence until 
comparatively recent times. " It was formerly fortified," said Fred, 
" and the old part of the town is very much crowded, the streets being 
narrow", the houses very tall, and many of them connected by arches in 
order to afford better security in case of earthquakes. They have 
earthquakes here at times, but there is rarely any serious damage done 
by them ; the people, however, are always greatly alarmed, 

"You remember the palms that were distributed at Kome on Palm 
Sunday, and the incident connected with the hoisting of the obelisk in 
the front of St. Peter's Church, do you not?" 

" Oh yes," replied Mary ; " that was when the boy violated the 
order of the police and called out ' Wet the ropes !' was it not ?" 

" Yes, that's the incident I refer to," said Fred. " Well, the boy w^ho 
thus called out was named Bresca, and he came from San Eemo. I be- 
lieve the family name has ceased to exist, but for a very long time the 
Brescas derived a handsome revenue from the monopoly of sending a 
vessel to Kome annually with palms for distribution in the churches." 

Beyond San Remo the train brought our friends to Bordighera, which, 
like the place just mentioned, is famous for its palms. The palms 
grown along the Piviera are only useful for ornamental purposes, as the 
fruit does not ripen sufficiently to be edible. Palm branches and 
young palms are sent from here in considerable numbers ; many efforts 
have been made to find a variety of palm-tree that would produce fruit, 
but thus far they have not been successful. 

Soon after leaving Bordighera the train reached the frontier at 
Yentimiglia and rolled into the station, where the baggage of passen- 
gers is examined at the French custom-house. The town is an Italian 



THE FRENCH FRONTIER. 



445 



frontier fortress, and very picturesquely situated. There is an old 
mediaeval tower overlooking the town ; it is in a very good state of 
preservation, but the ascent to it is decidedly difficult. It was no 
doubt a place of considerable strength in the times when it was built, 
but the artillery of the present day would make very short work of it. 




THE PALMS OF BOUDIGHERA. 



The custom-house examination w^as not very rigid, though at first it 
promised to be so. Before the turn of our friends arrived the dou- 
aniers, or custom-house officials, busied themselves with several indi- 
viduals who appeared to be commercial travellers. The trunks of these 
men were very critically and carefully overhauled, nearly every article 



M6 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

in them being taken out and turned over and over, to make sure it was 
nothing that would defraud the revenues of the repubUc. Several 
articles were seized and either confiscated or held for duty, and as our 
friends looked on they expected to receive attention similar to those 
which had been bestowed upon the commis-voyageurs. 

But when their opportunity came, the party of Americans was 
treated with decided civility ; they hastened to open their trunks and 
give the officials every opportunity to examine them. The contents of 
Fred's trunk were disturbed just a little, and so were those of Frank's 
hand-bag. All the other pieces of luggage were passed quickly, and in 
less than five minutes from the time the inspection of their baggage 
began our friends were through with the frontier formalities of the 
French custom-house. Of course the officials realized that they were 
dealing with tourists who were not likely to engage in smuggling, but 
they were suspicious of the commercial travellers of their own nation- 
ality, and treated them accordingly. 

Mentone was the destination of our friends, and in due time they 
arrived there. Mrs. Bassett and Mary were disappointed at the size of 
the place ; they had expected to find a city of some consequence, and 
were hardly prepared for a town of five or six thousand inhabitants, 
although, as Mary remarked, " It was pretty enough and picturesque 
enough for half a million people." Mary was in some doubt as to 
what constituted the greater part of the town, the hotels or the private 
houses. Mentone abounds in hotels, and also in villas for private 
residences, together with numerous pensions or boarding-houses, where 
those whose purses cannot stand the expense of hotels or villas can be 
accommodated. , Those who must live very cheaply can do so. 

From the station the party drove to one of the large hotels, but 
found it so crowded that they were unable to obtain suitable quarters, 
and they visited another and a third before they were suited. Their 
difficulty in securing accommodations was not in consequence of their 
being over - fastidious, but because Frank specially desired that his 
mother and sister should have rooms overlooking the sea. There 
seemed to have been many visitors whose thoughts ran in the same 
direction, as plenty of inside rooms were to be had, but outside ones 
fronting the Mediterranean were exceedingly scarce. 

" If I ever build a hotel," said Frank, " I'll have all the rooms out- 
side, and fronting in the most picturesque direction." 

" That would be a very good plan," remarked Fred ; " but if your 
hotel is very high in the air it Avill have a slight resemblance to a board 



AN IDEA IN HOTELS. 



ur 



fence ; perhaps 
board and lodg- 
ing fence would 
be more to the 
point. A four or 
six story building 
with just a sin- 
gle thickness of 
rooms would of- 
fer a splendid in- 
ducement to the 
winds to blow it 
down." 

"I heard," 
said Frank, " of 
an American ho- 
tel-keeper at a 
sea-side resort 
who advertised 
that all his rooms 
were outside 
ones. When pa- 
trons w^ent there 
and were assign- 
ed to rear or inside rooms they naturally com- 
plained, and indignantly asked the proprietor 
what he meant by his advertisement. He used 
to reply, ' I advertise all my rooms as outside, 
and so they are — outside the city.' I'll suggest 
that to a Mentone hotel-keeper, and perhaps he 
may take advantage of the suggestion." 

For an account of what our friends saw and 
did at Mentone we will make an extract from a 
letter written by Mary to one of her friends at 
home shortly after her arrival : 

" This is one of the loveliest places you ever 
saw," wrote the girl, "and I don't wonder 
that so many people come here to spend the 
winter. The climate is delightful. The town 
Mentone, which opens to the southward on the blue Mediterranean. 




ly^y. - 



lies in the Bay of 



448 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



You know it is said that there are ' wheels within wheels,' and here 
there are bays within bays. The Bay of Mentone is divided into the Bale 
de TEst and the Bale de 1' Guest, or East Bay and West Bay ; the di- 
vision is made by a rocky promontory, which is as picturesque as it is 
rough. They say that the mean temperature here is three degrees 
higher than that of Mce, although Mentone is slightly farther to the 
north. I don't know how many foreigners — Enghsh, Germans, Russians, 
Americans, and others — come here to spend the winter, not to speak of 
the French, with whom it is a favorite place. The French complain 









'' :1j 



THE OLD TOWN, MENTONE. 



because the foreigners 
have raised prices here, 
as in other places where 
they abound; but the 
foreigners might retort 
that it is the French 
landlords who raised 
prices on everybody. 
" The vegetation here is very luxuriant, and the gardens of Mentone 
are as ^^retty as any I have seen for a long time. There are lemon and 
olive groves all about here, and there are hundreds of caroub - trees, 
which remind me of Malta ; then there are figs and several varieties of 
small fruits, together Avith all the usual products of the vegetable gar- 
den. The resources of the town seem to be almost wholly derived 
from visitors, and the authorities evidently try hard to bring visitors 
here. They have laid out beautiful walks and drives, and built a fine 
Casino, and the hotels, 2)e'^s{o7is, and villas, and private apartments gen- 



ATTRACTIONS OF MENTONE. 



449 



erally are numerous and good ; 
at any rate the prices are, 
though the accommodations 
may not always be. The ho- 
tels are suited to all classes of 
visitors, and their prices grad- 
uate accordingly ; the same 
may be said of the villas and 
apartments, and I am told 
that if a visitor comes here to 
spend the season, and will take 
the trouble and time necessary 
for driving a bargain, he can 
get a very good one. 

'' They have two beautiful 
walks which are great favor- 
ites in the afternoon. One is 
called the Promenade du 
Midi, and the other is the Jar- 
din Public. We have strolled 
in them pretty nearly every 
afternoon, and found a good 
many others doing the same 
thing. There is a ruined cas- 
tle on the promontory between 
the two little bays, and it over- 
looks a cemetery which has 
been established here. The 
manager of our hotel said that 
the cemetery was peopled en- 
tirely by strangers who came 
here so ill that their recovery 
was impossible. He declared 
that no native ever died in 
Mentone, the climate was so 
delightful and health giving ; 
neither did any foreigner who 
came in a fairly good condi- 
tion of health ever die here. 

'' By good-fortune we went to 

29 




A STREET IN THE OLD TOWN. 



a hotel on the East Bay. Since we 



450 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

arrived ^ye have learned that the East Bay is warmer than the West 
Bay, because it is more closely encircled by the mountains back of it, 
there being some valleys that come down and open into the West 
Bay, giving currents of cool air which the East Bay escapes. For my 
own part, I cannot say that I have observed any difference. 

'' The old town lies between the two bays, and a very curious old 
town it is. When we drove to it from the railway station the omni- 
bus went at a walk through the town, and they told us this was in 
compliance with a rule established by the authorities, on account of 
accidents that had occurred from driving at a fast rate. The street 
was probably laid out before vehicles were much in fashion, or certainly 
any vehicles like the big concerns they use here for omnibuses. 

" The people of Mentone boast that their climate is the best along 
the whole coast, but probably San Kemo, Nice, Cannes, and other 
resorts make the same claim. We have seen some figures to support 
the claim of the Mentonese, to the effect that the sun shines all day for 
two hundred and fifty-nine days every year, or about nine months out 
of the whole twelve. They say they have no fogs here, and certainly 
w^e have not seen one since we came. The mountains which come 
down to the coast here are the Maritime Alps, and the same chain, 
after it passes Genoa, becomes the Apennines. 

"' The region about here is known as the Department of the Mari- 
time Alps, or, to put it in French, since we are on French territory, 
Departement des Alpes Maritimes. The fine winter climate of Men- 
tone, and of all the places along this coast, is due to the nearness of the 
mountain chain, which cuts it off from the cold winds, and keeps it in 
a bath of sunlight. They tell me that when the cold wind comes 
down from the north and blows over the mountain chain it strikes the 
water several miles out, and does not fall upon the town at all. They 
have a wind in southern France called the mistral, which is cold and 
dry, and not a pleasant thing when one has been accustomed to a good 
deal of warmth. The mistral blows in the vicinity of Marseilles and 
farther to the west, but is not known to Mentone at all. 

'' I asked Frank if the sirocco from Africa did not come across the 
Mediterranean and reach this region. He told me that it did, but that 
it was no longer the dry, scorching wind it was when it left the African 
coast, having been tempered in crossing the wide stretch of water. All 
things considered, they are certainly greatly favored here, and the 
wonder is that the advantages of the place were not known before. 
Down to 1857 Mentone was a very quiet, dull, and commonplace town. 



DISCOVERY" OF MENTONE. 



451 



An English doctor happened here that year and discovered its ad- 
vantages, which he soon made known to his countrymen. The resuh 
is that to-day there are forty or fifty hotels, and four or five times that 
number of villas ; if the winter population that comes here should all 
take it into their heads to go somewhere else, there would be a vast 
deal of gloom among the native residents, and as for the hotel-keepers, 
they would come to financial grief at once. 

" We have seen a villa on which there is an inscription which says 
it was the first one built here (in 1855) to attract the strangers. Cer- 
tainly it has been the leader of a very successful line, and the j^eople 




SCENE ON THE RIVIERA. 



ought to have it nicely set in gold or some other metal, and keep it as 
.a memento of the good-fortune that has come to them. 

" The streets of the old town of Mentone remind me very much of 




OLD OLIVE-TREE NEAR MENTONE. 



some of those in the old towns of Italy. They are very narrow, and 
many of them are mere lanes or pathways, Avhich Avould be entirely 
filled by an ordinary vehicle. Even a donkey with panniers at liis side 
compels pedestrians to hug very close to the Avails. While Ave Avere 
Avalking through one of the streets this afternoon three or four don- 
keys came leisurely along, and acting as if the Avhole roadAvay belonged 



SIGHTS IN OLD MENTONE. 



453 



"to them. I was looking in the other direction when they came, and 
Frank pulled me into a doorway just in time to save me from being 
tumbled over by the foremost of the train. Fred says that if I want to 
take up a philosophical question, he would advise me to investigate and 
ascertain whether the donkey was made for the streets of Men tone or 
the streets for the donkey. My hasty conclusion is that the latter is 
the case, the animal is 
so thoroughly self- 
possessed, and acts as 
though he had the en- 
tire right of way. 

''Many of the 
houses in the old town 
are five or six stories 
in height, and very 
often they are joined 
hy arches that look 
solid enough to resist 
the tooth of time, 
about which we read 
so much, for at least a 
thousand years. The 
doorways of the houses 
opening on the streets 
often reveal stone 
steps rising towards 
rooms with very low 
ceihngs. Many of the 
rooms are lighted only 
from the street, and 
this forces the occu- 
pants to sit in the doorways to obtain light enough for their work. 
The women with their sewing or lace-making, and the men engaged at 
shoemaking or similar employments, are in full view of every one who 
passes along the street. Occasionally we see women spinning with the 
old-fashioned distaff and spindle, and in front of nearly all the houses 
are groups of children playing in the streets, and looking as if a bath 
would do them lots of good and probably astonish them. 

" The houses certainly give token that they belong to mediaeval 
times, and, as if that were not enough, we encountered a herald with a 




REMAINS OF ROMAN ARCHITECTDRE. 



454 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

trumpet announcing something, just as he might have announced it in 
the days of the Crusades. I couldn't catch his words, but supposed he- 
was making some kind of an official proclamation. It turned out that 
he was nothing more or less than a walking advertisement, his declara- 
tion being that a certain shop had received a fresh supply of goods 
direct from Paris that would be sold at very low prices. 

" I asked Frank if he knew how old the town was, and he said I 
must give him an easier conundrum than that. There is a tradition, so 
Frank says, that the place was settled by the Phoenicians or Greeks 
long before the Christian era, and afterwards fell into the hands of the 
Pomans. It was in the possession of various petty princes for several 
centuries, and in the eighth century a settlement was founded here by 
pirates, l^aturally, pirates were not allowed to dwell here in peace, 
and after their retirement the rulers of the region round about had a 
good many quarrels about the possession of the place. The princes of 
Monaco had it for a considerable period, and about forty years ago it 
fell into the hands of tlie King of Sardinia. In 1860 it became French 
property, and has remained so ever since. 

" Frank told me an interesting story about the way the princes of 
Monaco obtained their revenue during the time they had possession of 
Mentone — that is, from the fourteenth century to the middle of the nine- 
teenth. They compelled the people to pay heavy taxes, and every few 
years they managed in one way or another to make an increase of the 
taxation. For some time previous to 1848 the Prince of Monaco lived 
in Paris, and spent eighty thousand dollars a year. This money came 
from the people in his principality, and his ingenuity was taxed for 
Avays to raise it, and what do you suppose he did ? 

" The products of his principality were oranges, lemons, and olives. 
He taxed oranges and lemons so heavily that the peasants could not 
make the least profit upon them, and, in fact, were barely able to sup- 
port themselves. He required the olives to be ground at the prince's 
mill, and you may be sure he charged a very high rate for the grinding. 
This was not enough, and he next required that all his subjects should 
buy the ' prince's bread,' which was made at the Government bakery, 
and from the cheapest and poorest grain. It was very often so bad as 
to be totally unfit for food, and they say that a. dog of fair intelligence 
would even go hungry rather than eat it. 

" I suggested to Frank, when he told me this, that I wondered the 
people didn't smuggle good bread in, or if that could not be done they 
could cross the border of the territory every day or two, as the country 



PRINCELY TAXATIONS. 



455 



isn't a large one, and there eat enough to keep them ahve until they 
could cross it again for another meal. 

" Frank said they would have done so, only it was necessary for 
them to buy passports at a high price every time they crossed the di- 
viding line. Travellers coming into the principality were obliged to 
throw away all the bread that they had with them, and when a vessel 
arrived in port if a single loaf of bread was found on board the cap- 
tain was punished with a heavy fine, and was considered a very fortu- 
nate man if he escaped imprisonment for a period of several weeks. 

" This sort of thing went on for twenty-five years, and then the peo- 




THE BONE CAVERNS. 



pie determined to endure it no longer. They joined the inhabitants of 
Rocca Bruna in a rebellion, and the result of the rebellion was that they 
achieved their independence, so far as the principality of Monaco was 
concerned, and set up for themselves." 

The last lines of Mary's letter were written rather hurriedly, as the 
time had arrived for starting on an excursion in the neighborhood, the 
special object of the excursion being to visit the Bone Caverns, as they 
are called. These caverns are of more interest to the scientific student 
than to the ordinary tourist. The every-day traveller does not trouble 



456 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



himself greatly concerning primitive and prehistoric man, being fairly 
satisfied with the man of to-day ; but this is not the case with the stu- 
dent who is ever in search of fresh knowledge. Mrs. Bassett thought 
she w^ould not go to the Bone Caverns, as they are at a little distance 
from the road and not particularly easy of access ; but when Frank said 




SKCTION OF A CAVE- DWELLING IN THE STONE AGE. 



that these caverns had been the abode of the Troglodytes, or cave-dwell- 
ers, her curiosity was roused, and she changed her mind. 

'' I confess to my ignorance on the subject of cave-dwellers," she re- 
marked. " I have read and heard something about them, and all that I 
can make out on the subject is that they were the people who lived in 
caves before houses were invented. Why couldn't the same name be 
applied to savage people in different parts of the world who live in the 
same way at the present time?" 

" There are not many savage people nowadays who live in caves," 
Frank replied, " the very lowest and most barbarous of the human race 
being able to construct huts to shelter themselves. The Troglodytes 
are interesting because they are so ancient. They are the earliest 
known members of the human race; therefore we can set them down as 
our ancestors. We will treat them with respect on account of our pos- 



HOW THE TROGLODYTES LIVED. 



457 



sible descent from them, but will not attempt to imitate their ways of 
life, which must have been very uncomfortable." 

" How did they live, and what language did they speak ?" was the 
very natural query which followed Frank's statement. 

" They lived in natural caves or caverns, or in holes which they dug 
for themselves in the earth. They are mentioned by Strabo and other 
ancient historians, who say that they could not speak articulately, but 
shrieked or screamed like the lower animals ; their vocal sounds had dif- 
ferent tones and modulations, just as those of the lower animals of 
to-day, in expressing fear or other emotions." 

" Do you realh^ think there was ever a race of people who could not 
talk, and had no words with which to indicate their thoughts ?" Mary 
asked as Frank paused. 

"Certainly I do; there are people of that kind on earth to-day, 
and you and I have seen them many times," Frank replied. 

" We've seen them ! Where V asked Mary, very much surprised. 

" Why, I saw one of them not ten minutes ago," Frank replied, " in 
the arms of a woman we met as we were w^alking along the pathway." 





FLINT IMPLEMENTS FOUND IN A CAVE-DWELLING. 



" Oh, nonsense !" said Mary, somewhat irritated ; " that was a baby." 

" Yes, so it was ; babes must learn to talk, and if they were not 

taught to do so they would never be able to utter articulate words. An 

experiment was once tried in one of the hospitals in Paris, by putting 

an infant only a few days old in the care of a nurse who was deaf and 



458 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

dumb, and isolating her from everybody except deaf and dumb persons. 
There was never a word spoken in the infant's presence, and he grew to 
be three or four years of age before he heard the sound of the human 
voice. He uttered cries or screams to indicate his wants or feehnffs, 
but there was nothing which could be called a spoken word ; not until 
he was taken from his deaf and dumb nurse, or governess, and efforts 
were made to instruct him was he able to talk at all. 

" Now it is not hard," continued Frank, " to imagine a race of peo- 
ple low in intellect, like babies, having very few wants, and, conse- 
quently, very few occasions for words, being absolutely without spoken 
language. All languages come from the desire or necessity of express- 
ing thought, and the higher the civilization and accomplishments of a 
people the more extended is its language. There are tribes of people in 
certain parts of the world whose language does not contain a hundred 
words altogether. It is adapted to their wants and to the circumstances 
in which they live, and as they do not trouble themselves about philos- 
ophy, science, politics, or anything else of the sort, they have no occa- 
sion for a greater number of words in their language. But here we are 
at the Bone Caverns, where the Troglodytes lived ages and ages ago." 

" 1 wonder how these people lived," Mrs. Bassett remarked, as the 
party stood in front of the cavern. 

"According to history and tradition," replied Frank, "they were 
hunters and robbers, and some tribes of them had herds of cattle. They 
lived in a very rude way, dressing in the skins of animals, and in hot 
weather wearing little besides the tattooing on their skins. They are 
said to have eaten not only the flesh but the bones and hides of their 
cattle, and, according to some authorities, many of the tribes of Troglo- 
dytes were cannibals. A good many stories are told about them which 
may or may not be true, but we may fairly come to the conclusion that 
a race of cave-dwellers preceded in most countries the races that lived 
in huts or houses, and there is no doubt that cave-dwelling was the 
primitive state of all mankind, or certainly of the greater part of it. 

" The Bone Caverns near Mentone are ^yo in number, and the debris 
which has accumulated on their floors has been carefully examined and 
studied by men interested in the subject, though the caverns were neg- 
lected until the time that Mentone became a resort for tourists. 

" Some scientific men who had come here for their health occupied 
their time in exploring the caverns, and made some very rich dis- 
coveries. They found that the debris contained bones of animals mixed 
with flint instruments, such as knives and arrow-heads, imbedded in the 



IMPORTANT DISCOVERIES. 



459 



sand. The bones were doubtless the remains of the animals on which 
the cave-dwellers fed, and the flints were their implements and weapons. 
In 1872 a skeleton was discovered in one of their caverns, and every 
bone attainable was carefully brought to light. The skeleton was that 
of a tall man, and the animal bones and other debris surrounding it 
showed that it was of great antiquity, probably belonging to the Paleo- 
lithic epoch, certainly not to a later period." 

" Excuse me," said Mrs. Bassett, " I'd like to know what Paleolithic 
means. I never heard the word before." 

" It means," said Frank, ^' the epoch or era marked by early stone 
implements. According to Sir John Lubbock, the Paleolithic epoch in- 




MENTONE LAUNDRESSES. 



eludes the earlier half of the Stone Age, before metals had been dis- 
covered, and consequently when all implements and weapons were made 
of wood, stone, bone, amber, horn, and the like. 

" Most modern archaeologists divide the primitive or prehistoric 
period of a country into three successive ages : the first being the Stone 



460 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

Age ; the second, the Bronze or Copper Age; and the third and last, the 
Iron Age. The lake-dwellers of Switzerland, about whom we talked at 
the Castle of Chillon, belonged to the same era as the people who dwelt 
in the caves here — at least, such is the belief. 

" One point of great importance to science," continued Frank, " is 
that many of the bones surrounding the human skeleton found here 
were from animals now extinct, and of a period heretofore supposed to 
have been before that of man. Their presence here shows that they 
were contemporaneous with him ; consequently it has been proven by 
the discovery at this very spot that man existed at a much earlier 
period of the world's history than had previously been supposed." 

The information which Frank had given them concerning the Trog- 
lodytes and the time in which they lived added materially to the interest 
with Avhich our friends explored the place. Mary remarked that she 
Avas very glad she did not live in that time. She greatly preferred the 
present, when the world is much more civilized, and there are good 
houses to live in, good things to eat, good music to hear, good books to 
read, and lots and lots of other good things, including express trains on 
railways, about which the Troglodytes could have known nothing. 
"They must have been a very stupid lot," she said, "as they w^ere not 
likely to have balls and parties and bands of music, and couldn't go to 
the opera from one year's end to the other." 

On their return from the Bone Caverns they passed a small brook, 
Avhere some laundresses were at work at their trade. They knelt beside 
the stream, some in baskets, and some on the earth or stones, and each 
with a stone in front of her or by her side on which to beat Avith a mal- 
let or club the articles she had soaked and washed in the brook. The 
heads of some of the laundresses were covered with gayly-colored hand- 
kerchiefs, and others with broad-brimmed hats. In coming from or go- 
ing to the brook they placed their burdens on their heads and w^alked 
with a stately dignity that w^as interesting to behold. 

Mary wondered why they did not find a larger stream for their 
work, Avhereupon Frank explained that there was a great scarcity of 
w^ater all around Mentone. " I was talking to-day," said he, " with a 
resident of the place, and he told me that water is almost as precious as 
wine in this region. Expensive lawsuits have been fought in the courts 
many and many a time for the possession of springs ; and a piece of 
land with a spring upon it, or the tiniest little rivulet running through 
it, is of far greater value than if it had nothing of the sort. 

" These little streams serve a variety of purposes before they are 



SCARCITY OF WATER. 



461 



allowed to reach the sea, and sometimes the water that flows down 
from the mountains is all taken up and utilized before the sea is reached. 
In Mentone the water comes in pipes, and you have seen the water-car- 
riers with buckets on their heads, or Avith small barrels slung at the 
sides of donkeys, going from house to house to deliver the precious fluid. 
" If you will observe this brook above the point where the laun- 
dresses are at work you will And that it is turbid, and quite possibly 




DOLCE ACQL'A, NKAR MENTONE. 



has already been used by other groups of laundresses higher up. A 
portion of this stream has very likely been diverted by means of a ditch 
or pipe to supply farms or gardens, and farther down the Httle that 



462 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



is left may be used for irrigating the fig and olive trees. These Men- 
tone laundresses are content with a very scanty supply of water, and 
they would probably go into ecstacies of delight could they see the 
laundry establishments at G-eneva." 




" Oh yes," said Mary ; '' I would like to liave them see where the 
laundresses stand in boxes at the edge of the beautiful blue Ehone, 
washing and rinsing clothes in the clear water as it goes rapidly by 
them — no, I wouldn't have them do so, as it would make them discon- 
tented with what they have here ; in their case, ' ignorance is bliss.' " 

During their stay in Mentone, Mary busied herself in tilling a 
botanical album with ferns and flowers, and before their departure 
she had a very good collection. Ferns and violets are so abundant in 
that neighborhood that they are often said to be as common as w^eeds. 
Mary's album contained leaves and blossoms of oleanders, hyacinths, 
tulips, orchids, primroses, and daisies, together with many other things 
growing in that favored region. She made some sketches in the olive 
and lemon groves, and also among the orange-trees. On a mountain- 
side not far from the hotel were some yery old olive-trees — how old 



MAKING OLIVE OIL. 463 

they were nobody could say ; but the lowest estimate gave them an 
existence of three or four centuries. It is said there are some trees 
at Cape Martin, near Mentone, which were growing in the days of 
the Roman Empire. Mary made a sketch of one of the oldest olive- 
trees, which will be found on page 452. 

One day the party made a visit to the olive groves, and watched 
the process of gathering the" fruit and extracting the oil. Here is 
Mary's description of what they saw : 

" There were half a dozen men beating the trees with long poles to 
knock off the fruit, as they claim it is better to gather the olives before 
they are ripe enough to fall of themselves. Women and children 
gathered the olives from the ground and placed them in sacks, and 
these sacks were piled on the backs of donkeys that carried them to 
the mill. Whether the donkeys enjoyed their work or not I am unable 
to say, but they were certainly very patient about it, and walked off 
with the utmost unconcern. The oil-mill that we visited was in a little 
valley where there was a stream of water, and I believe most of the 
olive-mills in this region are situated in similar localities. The build- 
ing was of stone, which is the cheapest material here, and just large 
enough to contain the grinding-mill and the press, together with jars 
and casks to hold the oil. The sacks were emptied into a circular 
trough hewn out from a stone, and a stone roller went around this 
trough, propelled by machinery set in operation by a water-wheel at 
the side of the mill. The olives are ground to a pulp, and this pulp, 
moistened with warm water, is placed in a press in baskets made of 
netted rope. The baskets are placed one above another until they 
reach the top of the press, and then the oil is forced out by the strength 
of one or two men pulling at levers. The clear oil and water flow out 
from the sides of the baskets into a tub standing below, the oil floating 
on the top of the water, whence it can be dipped off and placed in the 
receptacles that are ready for it." 



CHAPTEK XXY. 

THE LEGEND OF THE LEMON; HOW EVE BROUGHT IT FROM PARADISE.— LEMON 
INDUSTRY AT MENTONE. — VISIT TO CHURCH AND MONASTERY OF THE AN- 
NUNZIATA.— CAPUCHIN MONKS.— ST. FRANCIS, AND THE ORDER HE FOUNDED.— 
ALGERINE SLAVERY.— MENTONE SAILORS CAPTURED BY CORSAIRS.— VOTIVE 
OFFERINGS IN CHURCH OF THE ANNUNZIATA.— VILLAGE OF SANT'AGNESE.— 
A FETE DAY.— PROCESSION OF VILLAGERS.— CHURCH AND CHAPEL.— HOW 
THE FESTIVITIES WERE CONDUCTED.— A SARACEN FORT.— THE ACCOMMODAT- 
ING GUIDE. — VIEW FROM SANT'AGNESE. — MONTE CARLO AND MONACO.— 
THE SMALLEST MONARCHY IN EUROPE.— HOW THE PRINCE OF MONACO LIVES. 
—OLD TOWN OF MONACO AND ITS CASTLE.— THE GRIMALDI FAMILY.— THE AS- 
SASSINATION RECORD.— A FAMOUS FIREPLACE.— TOWER OF TURBIA. 



ONE day while they were vis- 
iting a lemon garden, Mary 
said she had heard a tradition or 
legend regarding the origin of the 
lemons at Mentone. 

Of course all wanted to hear 
the legend, whereupon Mary said 
that when Adam and Eve were 
leaving Paradise they passed un- 
der a lemon-tree just inside the 
gate. Eve raised her hand, 
plucked a lemon, and brought it 
away as a souvenir of the spot. 
Then they wandered about the 
world from place to place, until 
they reached the shores of the 
Mediterranean and arrived at 
Mentone. The spot was so beau- 
tiful, the sun shone so clear, and 
the sea was so blue that Eve said it reminded her of the Paradise from 
which they had been expelled. So she planted the lemon here, right 
here at Mentone, and enjoined upon it that it should make an Eden of 




ROMAN REMAINS, 



HOW MENTONE OBTAINED THE LEMON. 



465 



the enchanting spot, so that those who came after her could know 
something of the perfumes and tastes and joys of Paradise. 

" That is a very pretty story," Fred remarked ; " and what a splendid 
advertisement it is for Mentone ! But if you should mention it in a let- 




BRINGING LEMONS FROM THE GARDENS. 



ter to an American newspaper, the editor would cut it out and say it 
belonged in the department of the business manager, and must be paid 
for at regular rates as a ' reading-matter advertisement.' " 

" Well, I'm not going to put it in a letter to any American editor," 
Mary answered. "The legend is pretty enough, and could apply to 
hundreds of places besides Mentone. No doubt it has been appropri- 



30 



466 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



ated over and over again, but this is the first time I ever heard of it. I 
wonder how many lemons are grown here from that one seed which 
was planted so many centuries ago." 

" I don't know if all the lemons came from that one seed, or how 
they originated," Fred replied ; " but the annual production of lemons 
at Mentone is thirty million — at least, so I'm told." 

" Thirty million of lemons," Mrs. Bassett remarked, " would convert 
a good -sized lake into lemonade, provided there was a mountain of 
sugar at one side of it. 1 w^onder if the lemons here are better than 
those in other places farther to the south." 

" They command a good price," said Fred, '' and resemble the lemons 
of Lake Garda, as they keep better than the lemons of southern Italy 




and Sicily. The tree 
blossoms here all 
through the year, 
and the lemons are 
gathered at four different periods, 
so that the industry of collecting 
and shipping them is practically 
continuous the year round." 

Many of the lemon gardens are 
on terraces on the side of the 

mountain, and as the fruit is gathered it is placed in baskets 
brought down to the town. The gathering is principally done by 



THE MONASTERY OF THE ANNUNZIATA. 



and 

girls 



MONASTERY OF THE ANNUNZIATA. 467 

or women, and they carry the fruit in baskets or sacks on their heads ; 
they walk barefooted, and each carries a weight of 120 pounds, heed- 
less to say, they are strong and healthy in appearance, and Mary won- 
dered what wages they received for their hard work. Had she not 
been accustomed to the low prices of labor in most of the European 
countries she would have been somewhat surprised at learning that 
these lemon girls work from twelve to fourteen hours daily, and receive 
in return the equivalent of about thirty cents. 

One day a party was made up to visit the Capuchin Monastery of 
the Annunziata. The church and convent bearing this name are on a hill 
between two valleys in the rear of Mentone ; the hill is covered almost 
to the very summit with vineyards and orange and lemon gardens, and 
is a picturesque spot. The road to the place winds considerably, and 
ascends quite as much as it winds. Frank and Fred concluded to go on 
foot, as they wanted the exercise ; Mrs. Bassett and Mary were mounted 
on donkeys, though Mary's mount was more theoretical than actual, as 
she walked for the greater part of the distance going up and the whole 
of it coming down. Occasionally the party stopped to gather flowers by 
the way -side, and to look at the pano'rama which presented itself from 
the roadway, and changed at almost every step. 

Mary called attention to the frequency of small chapels by the way- 
side, and said she supposed the church whither they were bound was, 
or had been, a place of pilgrimage, and that the chapels were erected 
for the benefit of pious visitors. 

" That is quite true," replied Frank, " though the church is less a 
place of pilgrimage in these times than it has been in days gone by. 
A good many pilgrims go there every year, especially at this season, as 
we shall find when we reach the church." 

As they neared the top of the hill Mrs. Bassett remarked that the 
place looked very much like a fortress. 

" Yes," replied Frank ; " it not only looks like one, but to a certain 
extent it is fortified, and was capable of considerable resistance in an- 
cient times. You already know about the pirates who used to infest 
these shores and carry the inhabitants into captivity. For their own 
safety the churches and convents were made capable of resisting any 
ordinary attack, and some of them could have withstood a siege of con- 
siderable length. The conditions of former times in this locality are 
repeated to-day in the monasteries of Syria and Palestine. The Convent 
of St. Catherine near Mount Sinai, and the convent of the monks near 
Bethlehem maintain a state of defence ao^ainst the Arabs around them 




CAPUCHIN MONKS. 



now, just as this convent guarded against assaults by Algerine corsairs 
and other marauders a century or two centuries ago." 

" And it isn't so very long ago, either," Fred remarked, as Frank 
paused, " that the Algerines made raids on these shores or on the ship- 
ping that went out from French ports. I am told there are people now 
living in Mentone, or were living there only a few years ago, who were 
liberated from slavery when the French conquered Algiers in 1830. 



ABOUT ALGERINE PIRACY. 469 

Algerine pirates had captured the ships on which they were saihng on 
the Mediterranean and sold the crews into slavery." 

Mrs. Bassett expressed her astonishment at this bit of information, 
and said that if there was in Mentone any one who had thus been a 
slave to the Arabs it would gratify her curiosity to see him. 

Fred turned to the youth who was in charge of the donkeys and 
had a short conversation with him in French. When it was ended he 
turned to Mrs. Bassett, and informed her that the boy's grandfather 
was for several years in the hands of the Algerines and compelled to 
toil as a slave. The family ransomed him not very long before the con- 
quest of Algeria. The youth said that his grandfather alwa^^s lamented 
the waste of money in buying his freedom, as he would have obtained 
it a year or so later if they had only let him alone until the conquest. 
He Avas broken in health at the time of his liberation, but speedily re- 
covered, and lived until only a few years ago. The youth did not think 
there were any survivors of Algerine slavery in Mentone, though there 
might be some at Nice. " You must remember," said he, " that we are 
a long while from 1830, and there has been no slavery in Algiers since 
then, when the French captured the country." 

"It is a very picturesque spot," wrote Mary in her note -book, 
" where the church and convent of Annunziata are situated. There is 
a little plaza or square enclosed by a stone-wall, and on this plaza is a 
tall cross made of iron and conspicuously planted, so that it can be seen 
for a long distance. The church is on one side of the plaza and the 
monastery on another side. There is nothing remarkable about the 
church either in its interior or its exterior ; the principal objects of in- 
terest in it are the votive offerings, which have been placed there by 
sailors in acknowledgment of escape from shipwrecks or other perils 
of the deep, and their number is not small. 

" There are pictures, most of them rather rude, but some fairly well 
painted, representing storms at sea ; and there are pieces of chains and 
ropes and sails, together with other things belonging to the equipment 
of ships. We saw several models of ships that had been saved from 
disaster, the models having been placed here as souvenirs. Some of 
them are so well made that they must have been the work of men ex- 
perienced in model - making, and some looked as though they were the 
first efforts of a sailor's son to represent the craft to which his father 
was attached. Then there were pictures of escapes from land accidents, 
such as runaways of horses attached to carriages, and escapes from rob- 
beries, earthquakes, and other calamities. Most of these pictures had 



470 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



in some part of them figures of angels Avho were supposed to have ex- 
erted their preservative power at the critical moment, when the peril 
was greatest, whether on sea or on land. 

" At one place there was a small collection of crutches and canes 
belonging to persons who had been miraculously cured, and there were 
several pictures relating to incidents of this sort. These evidences of 




n-.- 



THE VOW OF POVERTY. — [Painting in the Church of St. Francis of Assisi.] 



the simple and trusting faith of the people are certainly very touching. 
While we were in the church a woman entered, leading a child whose 
eyes were completely closed by an inflammation of the eyelids. Slowly 
she walked up the aisle to the altar, and then knelt to pray that the 
loved one at her side might be restored to health. We looked on in 
silence, and I know that every one of us sympathized with the anxious 
mother, and hoped that her prayer would be answered. 

" The monks occupying the Monastery of the Annunziata live very 
comfortably, or, at any rate, I would judge so by their appearance. 
Some of them are young and vigorous men, while others are old and 
bent with ace. While we were standing in front of the church one of 



ST. FRANCIS D'ASSISI. 471 

the older men, with a sack on his shoulder, came slowly up the hill on 
the path by which we had ascended. On reaching the plaza he paused 
and laid down his burden, as if to rest a little before entering the mon- 
astery. One of the younger brethren stepped forward, picked up the 
sack, and carried it inside, not a word being exchanged between the 
men. Whether it was a part of the discipline of the establishment, or 
was simply an act of kindness by the younger monk towards the elder, 
without expectation of return, I am unable to say." 

Mrs. Bassett asked who and what the Capuchin monks were. 

Frank replied that they were a branch of the Order of Franciscans, 
being so called on account of the capuche, or head-dress, by which they 
were distinguished. " The Franciscans are also called Minorites, or 
Lesser Brethren," Frank continued, "and the order was founded by 
St. Francis of Assisi. Hence its name ' Franciscan.' " 

" I have read about him," said Mrs. Bassett, " and believe he was 
remarkable for his great learning and piety." 

" He was," said Frank, " one of the most extraordinary men of his 
age. He was born in 1183 at Assisi, and was the son of a merchant of 
that place. His baptismal name was John, but on account of his famil- 
iarity with the ' Romance,' or language of the Troubadors, he received 
the name of II Francesco, or ' The Little Frenchman.' In his youth 
he was very prodigal of money, but his prodigality consisted chiefly in 
bounty to the poor. He became a soldier, and was taken prisoner in 
one of the petty wars of the time. During his imprisonment he was 
quite ill, and his illness turned his thoughts from earthly matters to 
spiritual ones. After his release from captivity he again became a sol- 
dier, but a second illness caused him to take a vow never to refuse alms 
to a beggar. He made a pilgrimage to the tomb of St. Peter at Rome, 
gave away all his property, exchanged his clothes with a poor beggar, 
sold his horses and gave the proceeds towards rebuilding a ruined 
church, and took refuge for a time in a cave." 

" How old was he when he founded the Order of Franciscans ?" 

" He was twenty-six years old at the time, and the order at first 
consisted of himself and two of his fellow -townsmen. Others joined 
them from time to time, and when the number had reached eleven they 
established rules for the conduct of their association. Their rules were 
those of most monastic orders, with the exception that the vow of 
poverty was regarded by them as of the first importance, while in other 
orders the practice of poverty consisted in the mere negation of riches. 
St. Francis went so far in his repudiation of all ideas of property for his 




members as to 
ship even in those 
retained for their 
which they wore, 
about their waists, 
whose pages they 



FETE AT SANrAGNESE. 



their services/ 
a very severe 
marked. " I won- 
pered under the 



order and its - . 
disclaim owner- 
things which they 
personal use : the clothes 
the cords that they girded 
and the breviary from 
were accustomed to chant 

"That was certainly 
rule," Mrs. Bassett re- 
der that the order pros- 
circumstances." 

" On the contrary," said Frank, " the very severity of the vows 
seemed to form an attraction, as great numbers of men joined the order, 
and were sent out in groups or singly to different parts of the world. 
Seven years after its establishment it had more than five thousand 
members, and for some time afterwards the increase in numbers was 
very rapid. At present the order is not a numerous one ; the branch 
called the Capuchins was established about 1525, and its monasteries 
are found here and there in most Cathohc countries." 

Another day our friends made an excursion to Sant'Agnese, and on 




GOING TO SANT'aGNESE. 



474 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

this occasion all the excursionists Avere mounted on donkeys, as the ele- 
vation of the place is much higher than that of the Annunziata, and the 
road to it much more difficult. Sant'Agnese is a little village in the 
mountains, and the pavement of the principal street through it is 
twenty-two hundred feet above the level of the sea. We said principal 
street, though really there is but one street, and it is cut in the side of 
the mountain, against which some of the houses cling very closely. 
There is a church at one end of the street and a little chapel at the 
other, and the houses straggle along where they please. 

Just as the party reached the village a procession was coming out 
of the church door, the day being one of festival. The people were in 
their best garments, the girls dressed in white and carrying on a little 
platform an image of St. Agnese, and followed by all the rest of the vil- 
lagers, those that were not carrying candles or things used in the pro- 
cession having their hands filled with bunches of flowers. 

The procession marched along the little street, the priests chanting 
and the rest singing as they proceeded. On reaching the end of the street 
where the chapel stood the procession halted ; the figure of St. Agnese 
was carried into the building, where prayers were oft'ered, the villagers 
mostly kneeling on the ground outside, as the chapel was not large 
enough to hold them all. A little later the procession returned to the 
church, singing as before, and there it broke up. 

Then followed a feast, which was made a very joyous occasion by 
the villagers, and Mary learned on inquiry of one of the girls that the 
rest of the day would be devoted to a dance. She said that this par- 
ticular festival occurred every year on the fete of St. Agnese. '' But," 
she added, " we have other festivals, and we enjoy our fife here." 

Mary said all that she could think of in commendation of the little 
mountain village, confining herself principally to a praise of its pictu- 
resqueness and the magnificent view of the surrounding country and 
the sea. But she remarked in a whisper to Frank that while she greatly 
enjoyed the visit to Sant'Agnese, she did not think she would care to 
remain there more than a day or two. 

" As soon as the festival was over," wrote Fred, " we took lunch at 
the little tavern, the only one that the village contains, and afterwards 
climbed up a steep path to an old castle which occupies the summit of 
the mountain. We tried to ascertain its history, but could not. All we 
could learn was that it was a Saracen fortress, but when or under what 
circumstances the Saracens occupied it no one was able to tell. One of 
the village boys accompanied us in the expectation of pecuniary reward 



A WELL-INFORMED GUIDE. 



475 



for his services, and we turned to him for information about the fort 
and the people who once lived there. 

" He was anxious to oblige us, and very sorry he didn't know what 
we wanted to learn, so we adopted a form of questioning that enabled 
him to answer with an approach to satisfaction. 

" ' Did the Saracens live here in the twelfth century V Frank asked. 

" ' Yes, sir ; perhaps.' 

" ' They may have been here in the fifteenth century V 

'"Yes, sir; perhaps.' 

" ' Or in the eighteenth or nineteenth ?' 

" ' Yes, sir ; perhaps.' 

" ' They moved out last week, did they not V 

" ' Yes, sir ; perhaps.' 

" ' And will come back next month V 




VIEW FROM SANT'AGNESE. 



^' ' Yes, sir ; perhaps.' 

" 1 do not think our information," added Fred, " is of much histori- 
cal value, but I give it just as we obtained it. 



476 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



'^ There is a delightful view from Sant' Agnese which takes in the 
shore of the Mediterranean for a considerable distance. We could look 
down upon the orange and lemon gardens, the orchards of olive-trees^ 




PIFFERARI. 



and the vine-clad hills and terraces, as well as upon the villages and 
towns that were included in the smiling landscape. 

" We remained some time on the promontory until the declining sun 
told us it was time to be thinking of our return. . When we went back 
through the village we found the people having a merry time with their 
dance, in which some visitors who had come up from Mentone were 
taking part, much to the satisfaction of the villagers, or certainly not to 



THE PRINCIPALITY OF MONACO. 4Y7 

their discomfort. The journey down the mountain did not take as 
long as the ascent, and we reached Mentone and dismounted from our 
long-eared steeds just in time for dinner at the hotel." 

Mentone is only a short distance from Monaco, and after exhausting 
the sights of the former place, Frank suggested that they would spend 
a day at the latter. " We won't go there to stay and settle down," said 
he, " for the reason that there isn't much to see, and I don't think any 
of us would care to remain long in the place." 

" Why not ?" queried Mrs. Bassett. 

"Why, don't you remember, mamma, that Monaco is the great 
gambling place? I am sure you won't care to be there long." 

" Certainly not," she replied ; " but I was thinking that Monte Carlo 
is the place where they gamble. I didn't associate Monaco with gam- 
bling when Frank made his suggestion." 

" You are quite right in your understanding of the matter," Frank 
replied ; " Monaco and Monte Carlo, so far as the gaming is concerned, 
are one and the same thing. The Principality of Monaco is the smallest 
monarchy in Europe. Its ruler derives his revenues from the gaming- 
tables which are established at Monte Carlo, a part of his principality. 
Monte Carlo is the name of the railway station, and is nearest to the 
Casino and the principal hotels. 

" The whole territory of the Prince of Monaco," continued Frank, 
" contains less than three square miles. There is a promontory jutting 
out into the Mediterranean which is about half a mile long and a hun- 
dred and fifty feet high, and contains the old town of Monaco with its 
castle. About a mile from where the promontory joins the land is 
Monte Carlo, which is, as its name implies, an elevation, and between 
Monaco and Monte Carlo on a stretch of comparatively level ground is 
Condamine, which contains the railway station, baths, hotels, lodging- 
houses, and shops. Monte Carlo was leased by the proprietors of the 
gambling establishments at Baden, Hombourg, and Wiesbaden at the 
time gambling was suspended by the G-erman Government, and the 
prince derives a handsome revenue from the tables." 

" The place will certainly be interesting enough for one visit," Mrs. 
Bassett remarked, " and whenever you choose we will go there." 

The party took the train in the forenoon from Mentone to Monte 
Carlo, visited the gambling establishment, walked through the gardens, 
heard the music, made the tour of the old town, went through the 
castle, and did all the usual sight-seeing of the place. We will listen to 
Fred as he tells the story of the excursion. 



478 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



" You already know," said Fred, " that this monarchy is the smallest 
in Europe ; but in spite of its diminutive character, it is a very ancient 
one. Some authorities attribute the occupation of the promontory to 
the Greeks, and there is a tradition that Hercules visited the place and 




^■^-TiU^^ f 



^^^■jfs^:f'^^' 



took possession of it. Allusions are made to it by the ancient Latin 
writers, and the indications are that it has been almost uninterruptedly 
a place of residence from very early times. 

" The Principality of Monaco was granted in the twelfth century to 
the Kepublic of Genoa, in return for the services that the Genoese had 
rendered in expelling the Saracens from this part of the coast. The 
Genoese built a fort on the rock, and it became a place of refuge alter- 
nately for famous families of Genoa — the Spinolas, Grimaldis, Guelfs, 
and Ghibellines ; sometimes one and sometimes another of these families 
was in possession of Monaco, but it may be safely assumed that no two 
of them occupied it at the same time, as they were almost perpetually 
at war with each other, and as little likely to dwell in peace in one 



THE HISTORY OF MONACO. 479 

castle as a boxful of clogs and cats. In the fourteenth century Monaco 
passed into the hands of the Grimaldi family, and it became for a time 
the haunt of pirates, and made the navigation of this part of the Med- 
iterranean very dangerous for peaceful people. 

"One of the Grimaldis was prominent in the Italian wars of his 
period, and afterwards fought in the service of France at the head of a 
considerable force of Genoese warriors. After returning from the wars 
and settling down at Monaco, he devoted his energies to pirac}^, in 
which he realized a goodly fortune. By his money and the strength of 
his following he added Mentone and Eocca Bruna to his possessions, and 
they remained a part of the principality until the revolution of 1848, 
about which you know. There was the usual average of assassinations 
in the Grimaldi family, one of them murdering his brother, and the 
murderer being killed by his nephew, and there was still another assas- 
sination, making three in all. The Grimaldi family became extinct in 
the male line early in the eighteenth century ; the daughter of the last 
prince of the name married into a French family, and from her the 
present Prince of Monaco is descended. 

" The rulers of Monaco were at one time very wealthy ; it is said 
that in the reign of Louis XI Y. the Prince of Monaco was sent as am- 
bassador to Kome, and entered that city with all his horses shod with 
silver shoes ; each shoe held but by a single nail, so that it would not be 
long in dropping off for the populace to pick up. We are also told 
that one Prince of Monaco went to the wars with the Turks, defeating 
them with great slaughter. There are a good many other legends con- 
nected with the little principality, and if it were larger than it is I 
suppose there might be a good many more. 

" We hired a carriage to drive us about Monaco, so that we could 
see the principal sights, and the driver sought to make the excursion as 
long as possible. Our movements were very leisurely, and in this way 
we enabled him to prolong the journey to nearly two hours. Ordi- 
narily the tourist who looks at the place but does not investigate it 
particularly finishes his journey within an hour, and the carriage 
drivers are obliged to resort to various subterfuges in order to make 
their engagements last more than sixty minutes. 

" The little town on the rock has a population of about two thou- 
sand, including the garrison and attendants at the castle and the entire 
standing army of the principality. It was fortunate for us that there 
was a grand review of the military forces of Monaco at the time of our 
arrival. The army consists of twenty soldiers and some twelve or 



480 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

fifteen officers ; all the officers were not on duty that day, but all the 
soldiers were. I very much doubt whether the army of Monaco could 
make much of a fight against the army of France or that of Germany ; 
certainly the fort would be obliged to surrender at the first round of 
artillery against it, as its cannon are all old, and most of them dis- 
mounted and much injured by rust. 

" The castle is in the centre of the little rocky promontory which 
occupies the site of a much older edifice ; Mary said it was a good 
pocket edition of a castle, and ought to be chained down for fear some- 
body would come along in the night and carry it away. It is a very 
good specimen of the military architecture of the time when it was 
built ; it has a handsome marble staircase, some excellent frescos, and a 
stately hall called ' The Court of Honor.' They showed us into several 
galleries, and into the room where the Duke of York, brother of 
George III., died ; they also showed us a room where one of the 
Grimaldis was murdered, but I cannot say we were particularly inter- 
ested in it, or in the man who was killed there. 

" The ceilings of most of the rooms are lofty, and nearly all the 
apartments contain valuable paintings and bric-a-brac. In one of the 
halls, the one known as Salle Grimaldi, there is a chimney-piece which 
is said to have been hewn from a single block of marble ; it is a very 
elaborate piece of work, and I have no doubt is highly prized as a 
curiosity. The prince lives here a portion of the year only, the greater 
part of his time being spent in Paris. I asked our guide if the prince 
was expected soon ; he said he did not know, and that if I wished to 
ascertain very particularly I had better ask the general in command of 
the army, who was a well-informed man. 

" At one side of the promontory where the old town stands is the 
harbor of Monaco — not a very extensive harbor, to be sure, but quite in 
keeping with the rest of the place. We asked for the navy of the 
principality, but were told there was none, unless the yacht belonging 
to the prince and carrying two very small guns, might be rated as a 
ship of Avar and treated accordingly. 

" The driver of the carriage called our attention to the great cliff 
which rises behind Monaco, with a ruined tower upon its top forming 
an outline against the sky. He suggested that we could make an inter- 
esting visit to this tower, which is called Turbia ; but as we had the 
memory of Sant'Agnese fresh in mind we concluded that Turbia might 
be safely omitted from our programme. 

" On consulting the guide-book I find that the tower is 1900 feet 



THE TOWER OF TURBIA. 



481 



above the level of the sea, and owes its existence to the Komans, who 
built it on the boundary between Gaul and Liguria to commemorate a 
victory which was gained by Augustus Caesar over the Ligurians. Its 
original name was Tropaeum Augusti, or ' The Trophy of Augustus,' and 
from this name its present one of Turbia is derived. There was an 
inscription upon it originally, and fragments of stone bearing this in- 
scription have been found in the w^alls of the houses in a village near 
the tower; the inscription would be unknown to-day had it not been 
fully preserved in history by Pliny. The tower was in a very good 
state of preservation down to the end of the last century, when it was 
partially destroyed by the French ; it was occupied as a fortress during 
the Middle Ages, and was then a place of considerable importance. 

" But we came here not so much to study ancient history as to look 
at modern gambling. Here we are at the door of the Casino ; suppose 
we go in." 




ENTRANCE TO THE PALACE, MONACO. 



CHAPTEE XXYI. 



ENTERING THE CASINO.— RULES REGARDING ADMISSION.— READING-ROOM.— THE 
GAMING-TABLES.— ROULETTE, AND THE MODE OF PLAYING IT.— THE CROUPIER 
AND HIS DUTIES. — HOW THE CROUPIERS ARE WATCHED. — THE CROWD AT 
THE TABLES.— HOW THE SPECTATORS AND PLAYERS BEHAVE.— THE MYSTE- 
RIOUS "DIRECTION."— WHY THE PROFITS ARE ENORMOUS. —FASCINATION OF 
GAMBLING AT MONACO.— HOW VICTIMS ARE SENT AWAY.— SUICIDES.— PLAY- 
ERS WITH " SYSTEMS."— THE FAILURE OF "CERTAINTIES."— HOW A CROUPIER 
ROBBED THE BANK. — SNUFFBOX AND WAX. — FROM MENTONE TO NICE.— 
MESSAGE FROM DOCTOR BRONSON.— SUDDEN DEPARTURE FOR SPAIN.— BAR- 
CELONA.— A PROSPEROUS CITY.— VALENCIA AND ITS ATTRACTIONS.— MARY'S 
STORY OF THE CID.— A GREAT FRUIT-GARDEN.— SYSTEM OF IRRIGATION. 




T\7E entered the building by 



a spacious doorway," said 
Fred, "where a polite attendant 
asked for our cards, which we 
promptly gave ; our names were 
entered in a book, and we received 
tickets of admission for an indefi- 
nite period. ITear the doorway we 
saw a notice posted saying that the 
inhabitants of Monaco, and also 
those of the Departement des Alpes 
Maritimes, were forbidden to enter 
the establishment. It is quite prob- 
able that this rule is not rigidly 
enforced ; in fact, I was told that 
some of the permanent residents 
of Nice are in the habit of coming 
here whenever they like, and rep- 
resenting that they live in Paris. 
"The French Government is 
decidedly opposed to the gambling that is carried on here, and on more 
than one occasion it has proposed to put an end to it by absorbing the 
principality and making French territory of it. As the French army 



MAKE YOUR GAME, GENTLEMEN." 



AMONG THE GAMBLERS. 



483 



on a peace footing consists of five hundred and seventy-three thousand 
officers and soldiers, it would have no serious difficulty in conquering 
the army of Monaco, with its twenty soldiers and twelve or fifteen offi- 
cers. It has been intimated that the principal reason why this is not 
done is that the prince spends in France the greater part of the revenue 
derived from the gaming-tables, and thus keeps the money in the 
country where it will do the most good. 

" The Casino is a spacious establishment with large halls and corri- 
dors, the whole beautifully decorated and adorned with works of art. 



^As, 






ii si5s,a |s?^ --I-1 ^ 



JMoi^^?^!^ 







DIAGRAM OF ROULETTE-TABLE, 



It is a very orderly place, all conversation being carried on in low tones. 
At the slightest sign of any disturbance the numerous attendants inter- 
fere ; and unless quiet is secured at once, the offending parties are ex- 
pelled from the building and not again allowed to enter it. 

" We strolled through the Casino, to take a general view of it before 
we approached the gambling - tables. There is a large reading-room, 
where the principal newspapers of France and England, together with 
some from America and other countries, are kept ; and if one does not 
wish to play or look at the gaming, he can sit here and read as long as 
he likes. There is not the slightest effort of any kind to induce a vis- 
itor to patronize the tables. Every one may come and go at will, and 
whether playing or not, no objection is made as long as the strict line 
of good-behavior is maintained. We spent a short time in the reading- 
room, as we found there later newspapers from London and New York 
than any we had seen, and after informing ourselves as to the news of 
the day we proceeded to the room containing the roulette-table. 

" There was a crowd three or four deep around the table. Those in 



484: THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

the front row next to the table were seated in chairs, but the rest of the 
players were standing. Considering the size of the crowd, it was very 
still — as still, almost, as the congregation of a church. The only noise 
to be heard was that of the croupier, as he called out, at the beginning 
of each game, ' Messieurs, faites voire jeu ' (Gentlemen, make your 
game). This he said each time before setting the wheel in motion, and 
starting the ball around the circle at the edge of the Avheel. 

" Those who were playing acted in accordance with his instructions ; 
they ' made their game.' Some risked but a single five-franc piece, the 
lowest bet allowed, while others placed gold and bank-notes upon the 
numbers, some of them staking large amounts. AVe saw one wager of 
five thousand francs, and another of three thousand, and several of one 
or two thousand ; the highest wager allowed by any one player is 
twelve thousand francs. The wheel turned noiselessly, and the ball 
rolled with equal silence, for I don't know how long — perhaps two or 
three minutes. Slower and slower moved the wheel, and by-and-by the 
ball dropped from its place at the outer edge of the circle and rolled 
into the wheel, and lodged in one of its compartments. 

''At that instant the croupier called out, ^Le jeu est fait; rien ne va 
plus ' (The game is made ; nothing further goes). No one offered to 
make a wager after he spoke ; had there been any attempt to make one 
it would have been rejected. This is the rule of the game. 

" Perhaps you would like to know how roulette is played ; I will 
undertake to tell you the best I can, and if I make mistakes you must 
excuse them. My knowledge comes partly from what I saw at the 
table, but more particularly from what I have read in a book describing 
it in a technical sort of way. Here goes : 

"Koulette means 'a little wheel,' and is absolutely a game of chance 
— that is, when honestly played, as it is here and at all other 'respect- 
able ' gambling places. It was invented near the end of the last cen- 
tury, and was ])layed in France in preference to all other banking 
games until 1838, when it was suppressed ; and it was played at several 
German watering-places until 1872, when it was banished from the em- 
pire and took up its abode at Monaco. 

" Eoulette is played on a table of an oblong form covered with green 
cloth, and having a cavity in its centre a little more than two feet in 
diameter, in the shape of a punch-bowl. This cavity has several. cop- 
per bands around its sides at equal distance from each other; the 
sides are fixed, but the bottom is movable round an upright spindle ; 
and the bottom, or wheel, has a handle something like a capstan, 



HOW ROULETTE IS PLAYED. 



485 



which rises in the middle of the cavity, and is used to set the wheel in 
motion when ' the game is ready.' 

" Around the circumference of the wheel there are thirty-eight holes 
painted in black and red alternately, with numbers from one to thirty- 




MONACO — THE PALACE AND PORT. 



six, a single zero, and a double zero. Those thirty-eight symbols are 
painted on the cloth at each end of the table, so that players may place 
their money on whatever number they choose. Along the margin of 
the table are painted six wovds— pair, passe, noir, impair, manque, rouge. 
I'll tell you about them later, when we come to their use. 



486 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

" The man who conducts the game is called tailleur or croupier. He 
has an assistant at his side and two assistants in front of and facino" 

o 

him, and there are generally three or four others standing about in the 
crowd as though they were spectators. 

"This is the way they play the game : The chief croupier sets the 
wheel in motion by giving the capstan a vigorous push, and at the 
same time he sets an ivory ball in motion in the opposite direction 
around the rim of the cavity. The ball makes several revolutions, and 
at last falls into one of the thirty-eight holes that I mentioned, and the 
hole into which it falls determines the result of the game. If a player 
has staked his money on any one of the thirty-eight numbers, including 
the zero and double zero, he receives from the hand of one of the crou- 
piers thirty-six times the amount of his stake ; that is, he gets his stake 
back again and thirty-five times more. If he selected two numbers by 
laying his stake on the line between two numbers, and one of them 
wins, he gets eighteen times his stake, twelve times if he has placed 
it on three numbers, and so on. The numbers on the table are in three 
columns, twelve numbers to each, and if a player puts his money on one 
of the spaces under a column, and any number in that column wins, he 
receives three times his stake. J^ow I am coming to the six words I 
mentioned a few minutes ago. 

" The pair wins when the ball falls into a hole marked by an even 
number, and the impair if the hole is marked odd. The manque wins 
if the hole is numbered from one to eighteen inclusive ; passe, if it is 
numbered from nineteen to thirty-six inclusive ; rouge, if it is red, and 
noir if it is black. In the case of wagers on any one of these words, 
the player receives an amount equal to his bet, if he wins. 

" After each play there is quite a pause. All the losing bets are 
gathered in by the croupiers, either with their hands or with little 
wooden rakes, and the bets that have won are paid by counting out 
the proper amount of money, and placing it by the side of each wager. 
Disputes sometimes occur, though rarely, and I am told that rather 
than have a dispute the bank sometimes pays an unjust claim. We 
were not fortunate enough to witness any dispute during our stay in 
the roulette room, everything being perfectly quiet. 

"Thus far, as you see, the chances seem to be even between the 
bank and the players ; now I am coming to the advantage that the 
bank has over those who risk their money. 

"If the ball should fall into either of the holes marked with the 
single or double zero, the stakes of those players who risk their money 



SOURCE OF THE BANK'S PROFIT. 



487 



on the six chances in the words pair, passe, etc., are either equally 
divided between the bank and the players, or are 'put in prison,' as 
they call it ; that is, they stay on the table until the next turn of the 
wheel. If the ball should again fall into one of the zero holes, then 
half the stakes imprisoned are taken by the bank, and the other half 
is put in prison again. Thus the bank has an advantage over the 
players in the proportion of nineteen to eighteen. In the same way 
the player who bets on the numbers is under a similar disadvantage. 
There are thirty-seven chances against him, there being thirty-eight 
holes in all, and, therefore, if the chances were exactly even, he ought 
to receive thirty-seven times his stake besides his own back again, while 
really he only receives thirty-five times. Thus the chances of the bank 
against all who play upon the 
numbers is in the proportion 
of thirty-seven to thirty-five. 
Moral : Don't play at roulette. 

"When I explained this to 
Mrs. Bassett, she said the play- 
ing must be enormously large 
if the bank could afford to 
maintain all this fine establish- 
ment, and spend the amount of 
money that it does at Monte 
Carlo with only just this little 
chance in its favor. 

"I explained that the chance 
I had indicated was a very 
much smaller one than another 
€hance, which was that the ma- 
jority of people going into the 
bank were likely to come out 
with much less money in their 
pockets than when they went 
in. If every player who visits 
the roulette - table at Monte 
Carlo should risk a certain 
amount and no more, and should 

also quit when he had gained an equal amount, I don't think the profits 
of the bank would be anywhere near as great as they are now. But 
the fact is that when a man goes there, even if he has made up his 




FIREPLACE IN THE SALLE GRIMALDI. 



488 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



mind to quit after winning or losing a certain figure, he is very apt to 
yield to temptation in one of two ways, and possibly in both. 

" If he wins, he does not think it right to quit when luck is in his 
favor ; if he loses, he concludes that luck must change after a while, 
and he will keep on till he has got back what he has lost. Either way 
his position is a dangerous one, and it is a safe guess that nineteen vis- 
itors out of twenty come away 
with less money than when they 
entered, and not a small propor- 
tion of them leave the house with 
empty pockets. It is the fascina- 
tion, the temptation of the play 
that gives the bank its enormous 
profits out of its victims. 

" Suicides of men and women 
who have lost everything at the 
gaming-table are by no means 
infrequent at Monaco. Occasion- 
ally the papers make mention of 
them, but the 'Direction,' as the 
management is called, endeavors 
to hush up everything of the kind 
and keep it from the knowledge 
of the public. Kather than have a 
suicide about the place, it will fur- 
nish the unfortunate victim of the 
gaming - table with a ticket to 
Paris or London on his application 
at the office of the Casino, accom- 
panied by the statement that he 
has been a player at the game and it has gone against him. It does 
not put the ticket into his hands, but accompanies him to the railway 
station, sees that he gets into the train, and hands the ticket to the 
conductor. Exactly how many suicides take place here every year it 
is quite impossible to say, but it is generally believed that the number 
of unfortunates who thus end their lives is not small. 

"While we were looking on at the tables we saw several players 
with large cards in front of them, which they pricked with pins from 
time to time, or marked with pencils, in order to keep the run of the 
game. These were players upon ' system,' and it is astonishing how many 




PLEASE DON T DIE HERE. 



THEFTS OF A CROUPIER. 489 

people there are who think they can break the bank if they only play 
systematically. Pamphlets and small books are sold at the kiosks and 
all the news-stands in Monte Carlo, demonstrating various systems by 
which one can surely win at the tables. Evidently the ' Direction ^ 
encourages the sale of these books or they would not be so abundant, 
and it is a curious circumstance that every player who follows a sys- 
tem and has lost his money, can demonstrate, at least to his own satis- 
faction, that it was not the system which was at fault, but something 
else, over which he had no control. 

" In the conversation going on around us we heard frequent allu- 
sions to ' breaking the bank,' which led Mrs. Bassett to ask if there was 
really a banking establishment connected with the Casino. 

" There is really no bank connected with it, the name being figura- 
tive only. Every morning the equivalent of one hundred thousand 
dollars is placed in the safe at the Casino, and this constitutes ' the 
bank ;' when the run of luck against the establishment is so great that 
the safe is exhausted, it is said ' the bank is broken.' Play then ceases 
until a fresh amount of money can be brought there and put in the safe, 
and then the game is resumed. It is proper to say that this circum- 
stance does not happen more than twice or three times yearly. 

" The croupiers are an interesting study. They are mostly broken- 
down gamesters, who are employed on salary and have no interest 
whatever in the play. They are expected to attend to their business 
and do nothing else, and they are carefully watched to see that they do 
not appropriate to themselves any money belonging to the bank. Every 
movement of a croupier is noticed, and should it be at all suspicious he 
is very likely to lose his place. Any one of this gentry who can invent 
a method of stealing money from the bank must be exceedingly shrewd. 
I have heard a good story about how one of the croupiers managed to 
defraud the bank, and to continue his operations for some time before 
he was discovered. This is the way he did it : 

" He was an inveterate snuff -taker, and frequently during the game 
he brought his snuffbox from his pocket, took a pinch of snuff and con- 
veyed it to his nose, and then placed the box on the table near his hand. 
Then, a few minutes later, he took up the box again, took another 
pinch, and returned the box to his pocket. 

" This went on for some weeks, until one of the sharp-eyed watchers 
at the table observed that the intervals between his snuff-takings were 
every day becoming shorter. Suspicion was aroused, and an investiga- 
tion revealed the trick that he was playing. The bottom of his snuff- 



490 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



box was covered with an adhesive wax, and every time he placed the 
box on the table he pressed it with considerable force on the top of the 
gold coins that were lying there. One or more of the coins adhered 
to the wax. The next time he picked up the box he put it in his 
pocket, deftly detaching whatever had adhered to it, and making it 
ready for the next operation. Had he been content with one or two 
pinches hourly he might have gone on for an indefinite period without 
being discovered, but when he needed a pinch every few minutes he 
naturally aroused the suspicion of the watchers. 

" There ! I think I have told you enough about this nefarious busi- 
ness. I might go on and describe rouge et noir, which is also played 




SPANISH FISHERMEN. 



here, sometimes under that name, and sometimes called trente-un and 
trente et quarante ; but I think you ought to be satisfied with roulette. 
One game is just as bad as another, and has about the same percentage 



AT THE HOTEL DE PARIS. 491 

in favor of the bank against the players. Nobody knows exactly how 
much the profits of the bank are ; it is a stock company, and the 
amount of its dividends is not made public. It is able to pay one hun- 
dred thousand dollars annually to the Prince of Monaco for its privi- 
leges, and it spends more than that amount in beautifying the place. 
That it makes an immense profit above this is very certain. It is cur- 
rently reported that the total profits of the business at Monaco are not 
less than half a million dollars yearly, and from what I have seen and 
heard I can readily believe the statement." 

After satisfying their curiosity regarding the Casino, our friends 
strolled through the beautiful grounds that surround it, listened to the 
music, and then went to dine at the Hotel de Paris, the principal of the 
hotels at Monte Carlo. It is a palatial establishment, and excellently 
kept. One peculiarity of it greatly amused Frank and Fred, and that 
was the necessity of paying at table for the dinner. While the dinner 
was in progress one of the employes went around and collected from 
each diner the price of the meal. Frank suggested that he would settle 
at the office after dinner was over, but was politely informed that it 
was the rule of the hotel to pay on the spot, whether one was stopping 
in the house or not. It was the first time in their travels in Europe 
that they had encountered an arrangement of this sort. 

" There is said to be a reason for everything," Fred remarked, " and 
I suppose the managers of this hotel find it advisable, seeing that the 
gambling-house is so near, not to allow their customers to get much in 
their debt. It is a very wise arrangement from the manager's point of 
view. One might dine here with money in his pocket, then visit the 
Casino, and have nothing to pay his bill with an hour later." 

In the evening the party returned to Mentone, and on the next day 
made the journey, already mentioned, from Mentone to Nice by car- 
riage, sending their baggage on by train. In the afternoon they took a 
drive around Nice, and on returning to the hotel for dinner found 
awaiting them a message which had an important bearing on their 
future movements in Southern Europe. 

It was from Doctor Bronson, who is well known to the readers of 
previous volumes of " The Boy Travellers." It is proper to explain here 
that the Doctor had returned to America from Buda-Pesth, where we 
left our friends at the end of The Boy Travellers in Central Europe. 
He was uncertain how long he might be absent from them, but had no 
misgivings, as he well knew that Frank and Fred w^ere perfectly com- 
petent to manage the party of tourists. 



492 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



While at Mentone, Frank received a letter from his uncle announc- 
ing his arrival in London, and saying that he might telegraph them 
any day to shape their journeys so that he could meet them. Business 
called him to Spain, and the telegram they received at Nice requested 
them to go there at once to meet him. 

On receiving the telegram Frank immediately set at work to ascer- 
tain the speediest way of going from Nice to Spain. While he was 




GARDEN IRRIGATION NEAR VALENCIA. 



busy with the railway map, Fred looked through the advertisements in 
the newspapers, and found that a steamer was to leave that very even- 
ing for Barcelona, Valencia, Malaga, and Gibraltar. The agency of the 
steamer was near the hotel, and the youths proceeded to it at once. 
They found that the steamer would start from her anchorage about 
midnight, and immediately secured passage for the quartet. 

Keturning to the hotel, they found Mrs. Bassett and Mary waiting 
for them in the parlor, and announced that they had made arrangements 
to leave Nice that evening for the places just named. 



BARCELONA AND VALENCIA. 493 

" Yery well," said Mrs. Bassett ; '' must we go before dinner or after- 
wards ? We are ready for orders." 

" We are not in as great a hurry as that," replied Frank. " We will 
dine comfortably, and then go on board the steamer. There is no occa- 
sion for any inconvenient hurrying." 

The plan was carried out, and at the appointed time the steamer 
was ploughing the waters of the Mediterranean in the direction of Bar- 
celona. Her stay at that port was a brief one, as she had but a small 
quantity of cargo to discharge and very little to receive ; there was not 
sufficient time for our friends to go on shore and look around, and 
therefore their knowledge of this beautiful city was derived from con- 
templating it from the deck of the steamer. 

Fred made note that Barcelona is one of the most prosperous cities 
of Spain, having large manufacturing industries, which are made mani- 
fest by the tall chimneys visible in every direction. From his inquiries 
concerning it, Fred learned that its trade is increasing rapidly year by 
year, and the city is steadily extending, many fine houses having been 
erected within the last half - century. The land that has been built 
upon in the last twenty -five years is greater than that of the town 
itself before the old walls were torn down in 1868. The new quarter 
of the city is laid out in streets at right angles to each other, many of 
them lined with shade- trees, and making a striking contrast to the nar- 
row and crooked streets in the old town. Barcelona is the capital of 
its province, the see of a bishop, and the residence of a captain-general. 
It has a fine university^ commercial academies, and several hospitals, 
orphanages, and other charitable institutions. 

At Yalencia the party were more fortunate, and the travellers con- 
soled themselves for their inability to visit Barcelona by the reflection 
that the latter city is more than half modern, and contains comparative- 
ly few objects of special interest. Yalencia, like Barcelona, is the capi- 
tal of its province and the residence of the captain-general ; it has a 
university and the usual hospitals, prisons, and other charitable and cor- 
rectional institutions peculiar to Spanish cities. 

The steamer on which our friends were passengers arrived at Ya- 
lencia in the morning and did not leave until the evening, so that they 
had the entire day on shore. They greatly enjoyed the visit, and 
when they returned to the boat Mrs. Bassett declared that if all her 
days in Spain were as pleasant as that one had been, she would have no 
reason to complain of the journey. 

Before they went on shore Mary said she was rejoiced at the oppor- 




SPANISH FRUIT- SELLERS. 



tunity of seeing Valencia because it was the home of the Cid. There- 
upon Mrs. Bassett asked what the Cid was, and if they were Hkely to 
see it during their visit. 

" Not very hkely to see A^'m," was the reply, " as he lived long and 
long ago — nearly a thousand years." 

"Well, then, please tell me who he was ; I would like to know." 



STORY OF THE CID. 495 

'' To begin with," said Mary, " lie was called the Cid Campeador, 
and was the most celebrated of Spain's national heroes. Many accounts 
have been given of this character, and there is a great deal of fiction 
mixed up with fact ; in reality, there is so much fiction about him that 
it is often difficult to find where the fact is. Some writers have even 
doubted whether any such person ever lived, but I believe that recent 
investigations have succeeded in separating the historical account of the 
Cid from the romantic. You must not be surprised at my intimate 
knowledge of his character, as I found a book by a French writer in the 
hotel at Mentone which told all about him. 

" His real name," continued Mary, " was Roderigo Ruy Diaz, which 
means Roderic the son of Diego, and he was descended from one of the 
old families of Castile. He flourished in the eleventh century. The 
name by which he is known, Cid Campeador, was given to him in con- 
sequence of his successes in war. Cid is an Arab title which means 
'lord,' and Campeador is a Spanish word which is the equivalent of 
* champion.' Two languages were required for his name. 

"You wouldn't care to hear all the details of his career and his 
troubles with the King, in which he was twice exiled, and was concerned 
in plots and intrigues of various sorts. He captured Valencia from the 
Moors in the year 1094, retaining possession of it for five years, and be- 
coming master of a large extent of country surrounding it. He died of 
grief in 1099, on learning of a disastrous defeat of his army ; his widow 
held possession of Yalencia for three years after his death, and then 
was driven out. And that's the most I know of the Cid ; perhaps I 
shall know more about him when we have seen Yalencia." 

As they went on shore Frank remarked that the first thing the Cid 
did on capturing Yalencia was to take his wife and daughters up to a 
high point, and show them all its glories. 

" Well V said Fred, in a tone of interrogation. 

" Well," replied Frank, " we will follow his example. We will as- 
cend the tower of the cathedral, which is called El Miguelete, because 
its bells were first rung on St. Michael's feast-day. It is a handsome 
tower one hundred and sixty feet high, and was built near the end of 
the fifteenth century. The intention was to make it three hundred and 
fifty feet high, and that accounts for its stunted appearance." 

The party ascended the tower, and had an excellent view of the city 
and the region surrounding it. Yalencia is almost circular in shape. 
On the north is the sandy bed of the river Turia, with a small stream 
of water meandering through it. Fred called attention to the river, 




CHURCH OF SANTA CATALINA, VALENCIA. 



and informed the rest of the party that it was a fair sample of the rivers 
of Spain, and also of Portugal. 

" It is a common saying," he added, " that the Spanish rivers require 
a liberal use of sprinkling-pots and watering-carts to keep down the 
dust. All through the country you find that the rivers are little more 



SIGHTS OF VALENCIA. 497 

than dry beds for the greater part of the year. There are times when 
they run in torrents, and therefore it is unsafe to build houses on the 
sands or even to camp there over night without keeping a careful 
watch for floods that come without notice." 

" I can see," said Mrs. Bassett, " that there are several bridges across 
the river, and presume they would not be there unless they were needed." 

" That is quite true," replied Fred, '' and from all that I hear they 
never know exactly when the necessity Avill come. The bed of the 
river may be dry for weeks and months when a sudden cloud-burst 
among the hills brings a torrent without the least warning. This has 
happened more than once here as well as elsewhere." 

"I read somewhere," said Mary, "that Valencia was a walled city, 
but I cannot see any walls. They must have been pulled down." 

" Yes," said Frank, " they were pulled down in 1871, partly in order 
to obtain the ground for new streets, and partly to give employment to 
the poor. It is too bad that they were removed, because they were 
very picturesque, having battlements through their whole length. There 
were twelve gates to the city, and you can see that some of them are 
still standing. We will be thankful for these." 

Mary took note of the gates ; she also called attention to the nar- 
rowness of the streets, and the loftiness and gloom of the houses which 
almost invariably have flat roofs. She observed and remarked to the 
rest that on nearly every house there was a cage, and on some houses 
several cages, containing pigeons. Frank explained that the Yalencians 
are great fanciers of pigeons, and indulge frequently in shooting-matches 
in which the birds are the victims. 

On descending from the tower the party visited the cathedral which 
stands on the site of the Roman temple of Diana, Valencia having been 
founded by the Romans in the second century before the Christian era. 
In the fifth century it was captured by the Goths, and in the eighth 
century by the Moors ; the Moors continued in possession of it for three 
centuries until quarrels arose among them, and were terminated by the 
capture of Valencia by the Cid after a siege of twenty months. One of 
his first acts after taking possession was to burn alive the Arab gov- 
ernor of the city because he had resisted. 

One or two churches, in addition to the cathedral, were briefly in- 
spected, but nothing worthy of serious note was found in them. Our 
friends were much more interested in the life of the streets, in the cos- 
tumes and manners of the people, and in the quaintness of the houses. 
Listen to Mary as she describes their stroll through the city. 

32 



498 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

" The houses," said Mary, '' remind us very much of those of Naples 
and other cities in the southern part of Italy. I^early all of them have 
balconies, where one can sit and enjoy the air ; and if a house happens 
to be on the sunny side of the street, they have curtains by which they 
can keep off the hot rays of the sun — at least, to some extent. We saw 
women and children on the balconies, and occasionally men were there, 
but not very often. The people in the streets were almost as Italian in 
appearance as the houses, their complexions being generally swarthy 
and their movements not at all nervous. When talking they gesticu- 
late less than do the Italians, and the most of them manifest a great 
deal of dignity in their manner. 

" We had a guide, whom we hired for the day to show us about, and 
he certainly had dignity enough in his manner to be a bishop and a 
captain-general all at once. To hurry him was an absolute impossi- 
bility. He spoke French very well, and seemed intelligent enough for 
all purposes ; I am sure we tried him rather severely on two or three 
occasions when we endeavored to make him move rapidly. In this re- 
spect he was like his countrymen, who remind me of something that a 
traveller once said about the Turks : that the only man in Turkey whom 
he saw displaying any activity was falling from the roof of a house. I 
don't think a Yalencian could show any activity unless he was falling 
from somewhere, not even if he were chased by a dog or wolf. 

" Our guide informed us that there Avas to be a bull-fight in the af- 
ternoon, and he wished to know if he should get tickets for us. Of 
course we declined at once, as none of us had an}^ desire to witness that 
cruel sport which is so popular with the Spanish people. We saw 
a procession going through the streets leading a very meek bull by 
way of advertisement of the show. The guide explained that the ani- 
mal in the procession was not to be slaughtered. He was merely the 
one that was kept to lead through the streets, the others being too 
unruly for a quiet promenade. 

" At the time of the annual festival at Valencia they have no less 
than three days of bull-fighting, eight bulls being killed each day, the 
best swordsmen of Spain taking part in the performance, and every- 
body who can afford to buy a ticket going to the bull-ring, which is 
just outside the limits of the city. At other times bull -fights take 
place only occasionally, and the number of victims is limited to three 
or four, and these of a very common sort. 

"It is proper to say that the greatest popularity of this sport 
is among the lower classes of the people. Many fashionable folks go. 



SPECTATORS AT A BULL-FIGHT. 



499 



but not so many as in former times, and the royal court very rarely 
makes an appearance there. Several times bills have been presented in 
the Cortes, or National Parliament of Spain, for the abolition of bull- 
fighting; but however will- 



ing the Government might 
be to enact a law to this ef- 
fect, it would certainly in- 
vite a revolution by doing so. 
" I wanted to take a ride 
in a comical little cab that 
we saw^ — a sort of two- 
wheeled cart with an awn- 



^ 



F'^ 




i.^ 






4 ■■■' 




^__a;*iai,i site 



GOING TO THE BULL- FIGHT, MADRID. 



ing above it, the driver sitting on the shaft close to the very shabby- 
looking mule that propelled the vehicle. The guide said these cabs 
w^ere not at all comfortable ; besides, they were only for the ordinary 
people, and not for distinguished foreigners like ourselves, and so we 
stuck to the four-seated carriage that we had engaged. I suppose the 



500 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 




A VALENCIA CAB. 



guide was right as to the comfort of the vehicle, but it would have been 
a bit of a novelty — at least, to me, I'm sure. 

'' The shops of Valencia are pretty and attractive, but they contain 
ver}^ little for which we cared, as the most of the goods that they dis- 
played were from Paris or London, with the exception of leather goods, 
ironware, and other things of Spanish manufacture. One street that 
we passed through, the Mercado, was crowded with little stalls where 
various kinds of fruit were offered for sale, together with many little 
trinkets and toys and small articles for household use. The fruit 

seemed very cheap, as you could 
buy two or three oranges for a 
penny, or a great bunch of white 
grapes for the same money. 

" Valencia, as you probably 
know, is famous for its export of 
oranges, great quantities of which 
are sent to America. There were 
melons in abundance, and the 
prices asked for them were decid- 
edly low, just as was the case 
with oranges and grapes. For 
miles and miles around the country near Valencia is a vast orchard or 
garden-spot. I am told that you can drive or go by railway for near- 
ly forty miles without once being out of sight of an orange-grove or 
fruit-garden on either side of your route. 

" The fertility of the soil near Valencia is due to irrigation, which 
was planned and put in operation by the Moors, and we were told that 
the canals through which the water flows to-day were made by the 
Moors during their possession of the country, and have been carefully 
kept up ever since by the Spanish owners. 

" The water supply is drawn from the rivers, and it is the taking of 
the water for purposes of cultivation that makes many of the streams 
of Spain so scanty when they reach the sea. The use of the water is 
regulated by a water-court, ever}^ proprietor being restricted as to the 
number of days and the number of hours each day when he may make 
use of the water. The water-court meets once a week in Valencia, and 
consists of twelve peasant farmers, who are chosen by election. All 
disputes concerning the use of water are settled by this tribunal, and 
there is never any appeal from its decision. 

" Valencia has a good deal of color in its houses, more so than we 



HOUSES IN VALENCIA. 



501 



had expected to find. Our guide took us through the street of the 
Cavaliers, which contains houses belonging to the old nobility of the 
city. These houses have Gothic windows and open arcades in the up- 
per story, but this style of architecture is not followed in the new 
houses, which are tinted in cream-color and blue and rose. Tiles are 




SPANISH STREET SCENE. 



freely used for the covering of buildings, some of them blue, some 
white, some red, and they are generally set in rows so that they form 
stripes. Most of the effects are very pretty. 

" Valencia was formerly celebrated for its manufacture of tiles, and 



502 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



the neighboring Island of Majorca has given its name to the ware, 
which became widely known in its time. The tiles of Valencia are 
less popular now than formerly, when the city had almost a monopoly 
of the business. Frank and Fred declare that tiles quite equalling any- 
thing which Valencia can produce are made at the Trenton Pottery 
Works, and several other establishments in the United States." 




COURT-YARD OF A SPANISH INN. 



CHAPTEE XXYII. 

ALICANTE AND ALMERIA.— OUT- DOOR BARBERS.— HAIR -CUTTING FOR MAN AND 
BEAST.— CIGARETTE -SMOKING UNIVERSAL.— DONKEYS AND THEIR RIDERS.— 
CHEAP FRUITS.— STREET PEDDLERS.— GARLIC MERCHANTS.— MALAGA.— A TEL- 
EGRAM FROM DOCTOR BRONSON.— GENERAL VIEW OF MALAGA; ITS COM- 
MERCE AND INDUSTRIES.— A LAND OF MODERATION.— BY RAILWAY TO COR- 
DOVA.— THE MEZQUITA ; ITS HISTORY AND PECULIARITIES.— BEAUTIES OF THE 
MOSQUE.— COURT OF ORANGES.— INSCRIPTION MADE BY A PRISONER.— THE 
MIHRAB.— CORDOVAN WARES.— FROM CORDOVA TO SEVILLE.— MOORISH BUILD- 
INGS.— INTERESTING ARCHITECTURE.— GRATED WINDOWS AND THEIR USES.— 
THE GIRALDA, AND VIEW FROM ITS TOP.— THE GREAT CATHEDRAL.— BEGGARS 
AND THEIR WAYS. 



FROM Yalencia the steamer proceeded to 
Malaga, stopping briefly at Alicante and 
Almeria; and our friends had a short time 
on shore at both these places, but not suffi- 
cient for an extended study. At Alicante 
their attention was drawn to the Castle of 
Santa Barbara, which commands the town 
and the bay ; they wanted to ascend it for 
the sake of the view which it afforded, but 
were unable to do so. Frank and Fred 
thought that the harbor of Alicante could 
boast of more smells than the famous City 
of Cologne. The reason of its bad odor is 
that the city stands on a sheltered bay 
which receives all the drainage of the place ; 
as there is very little tide in this part of 
the Mediterranean, there is not enough to 
wash out the harbor daily. The advantages 
of a good tide are nowhere more apparent 
than in the harbors that lie along the south- 
ern coast of Spain and France. 

It was evident to the travellers that the 




SPANISH SINGING-GIRL. 



504 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

climate of Alicante was a mild one, as many industries usually con- 
ducted in-doors in northern countries were practised in the open air. 
Shoemakers, tailors, and men of similar occupations were w^orking in 
the doorways or under little awnings, and here and there were barbers 
engaged at shaving or hair-cutting wherever they could *find convenient 
nooks in the shade. One tonsorial shop that they saw might have put 
up a sign announcing hair-cutting for man and beast ; one barber in it 
was engaged in cropping the locks of a peasant, and two or three 
steps aAvay his partner was shearing a donkey. It is observable that 
the Spanish donkey is generally sheared along the back and half way 
down the sides, not in order to enhance the beauty of the creature, but 
to make the surface smoother for the rider, or for any burden placed 
there, and also to keep the animal cool. 

Frank made a sketch of the scene, while Fred commented in a low 
voice to Mrs. Bassett and Mary concerning the difference between the 
barber-shops of America and the establishment which they then had in 
view. There was no reclining-chair such as one finds in nearly every 
part of the United States, but a very ordinary stiff -backed chair, in 
w^hich the customer sat while the barber Avas at his work, the patron 
being required to hold a cloth to catch the severed hair, or, m case of a 
shave, to hold under his chin a basin tilled with soapsuds and fitted to 
his neck by a curved indentation at one side. 

The barber indulged in the luxury of a cigarette while manipulating 
the shears, but no such solace was allowed to the customer. Fred made 
note of the fact that smoking seemed to be wellnigh universal, and was 
practised in ways and places unknown in most other countries. In a 
cafe where they rested a short time the waiter who brought them some 
refreshments calmly smoked a cigarette while serving the party, and it 
was noticeable that fully one-half the waiters in the place were similarly 
regaling themselves. In a shop that they entered in the expectation of 
buying a few souvenirs of the city the salesman behind the counter was 
leisurely smoking, and so was the cashier, a middle-aged woman who 
sat at a high desk a little distance from the door. Mary said she 
thought they would see the Spanish infants in arms smoking cigarettes, 
but in this she was happily disappointed. 

" What a lot of donkeys they have here," remarked Mrs. Bassett, 
" and w^hat heavy weights the poor creatures have to carry. I wonder 
their backs are not altogether broken down." 

She said this just as a large man on a small donkey rode past them 
at a good pace ; the proportions of man and beast were such that the 



DONKEYS IN SPAIN. 



505 



rider was obliged to keep his lower limbs bent at a considerable angle 
to prevent his feet touching the ground as thej went along. 

Sights of this kind were quite numerous during the stay of our 
friends at Alicante, and were by no means infrequent in other cities of 




STREET BARBERS, FOR MAN AND BEAST. 



Spain. The donkey is often ridden bare-back, and his saddle, whenever 
he has any, is usually the merest apology for one. 

Few of the saddles have stirrups, and it is astonishing with what 
skill a rider keeps himself in place when going at a rapid rate. One 
does not have to watch long to discover that there is a great advantage 
in riding without stirrups. The donkey is not a surefooted beast ; he 



506 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



stumbles frequently, and if at the time of stumbling he has a heavy 
load on his back he is pretty certain to go down " all of a heap." If 
the rider has his feet in stirrups he joins the donkey with a half -somer- 
sault and increases the size of the heap, but if his feet are free he lands 
on them and steps forward with the utmost unconcern. 

Almeria proved to be very much like Alicante in general appearance. 
It is said to have a delightful climate, the thermometer never falling 
below 64° Fahrenheit; it is hot in summer, the mercury not infrequently 
rising to 98° and 100°. It is an old place, having been occupied by the 

Eomans, under whom it was the 
great port of traffic with Italy 
and the East. When the Moors 
occupied this part of Spain, Al- 
meria became a haunt of pirates 
and a very prosperous place. One 
Arab writer said of it as follows : 
"It is a city where if thou 
walkest the stones are pearls, the 
dust gold, and the gardens a par- 
adise." 

Almeria has lost much of its 
ancient importance, but still con- 
tinues famous for its figs, or- 
anges, lemons, and other fruits, 
great quantities of which were 
for sale in the market at surpris- 
ingly low prices. Mrs. Bassett 
remarked that if one would be 
content to live on fruit alone, 
and lodgings were at correspond- 
ing prices, Almeria would be an 
exceedingly cheap and economi- 
cal place to dwell in. 

Mary made a sketch of a 
garlic vender who was walking 
about the market-place with gar- 
lic bulbs strung like onions and 
festooned about his neck. Mary suggested that she hoped to make a 
strong picture of this itinerant merchant, and would certainly succeed 
if she could only, transfer to the paper the flavor of his wares. Garhc 




AT FULL SPEED. 



A COUNTRY OF LEISURE. 



6or 



is a very important article of diet in all the region bordering the Medi- 
terranean, its importance arising more from its flavoring powers than 
from its nutritious qualities. 

At Malaga the party landed, 
having received immediately on 
the steamer's arrival a telegram 
from Doctor Bronson, saying that 
he would await them at Seville, 
for which place they took the 
first train that was available. 
The train Avas late in starting, and 
when it was under way its speed 
was not at all swift. Frank said 
it partook of the Spanish char- 
acteristics both in its delay in be- 
ginning the journey and its mod- 
eration in making it. 

Everything is leisurely in this 
country, and, as before remarked, 
nobody can be hurried. Fred ex- 
pressed some doubt as to wheth- 
er a railway train would acceler- 
ate its speed at all if it were let 
loose on a down grade. An Eng- 
lishman engaged in business at 
Malaga happened to be in the 
same carriage with our friends. 
He joined in the conversation, 
and answered Fred that an ex- 
periment of the sort which he 
described was once proposed ; but 
it was prevented by the Span- 
iards in charge of the railway, 
who feared that such an example might be injurious to the public. 

Malaga is considerably larger than Alicante or Almeria ; in fact, it is 
larger than both of those cities combined. It has a spacious and hand- 
some opera-house, and of course it has a bull-ring, the latter being close 
to a large hospital. Frank inquired if this arrangement was for the 
convenience of unfortunate bull-fighters, and was told that it was purely 
accidental, the hospital having been presented to the city by a gentle- 




GARLIC VENDER. 



508 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

man who had made a large fortune in commerce. Malaga has had its 
shares of sieges, ^Dlagues, revolutions, and other calamities, and there is 
a very turbulent element in its population which is ready to take any 
opportunity to make trouble. The city has a large commerce with 
foreign countries, one of its most important items being in the wines 
which bear its name, and in raisins and fruit. 

One railway route from Malaga to Seville passes through Cordova, 
and Frank thought it advisable to stop a few hours at the latter place, 
partly in order to break the journey, and partly to see the famous city. 
The distance from Malaga to Cordova is one hundred and twenty miles, 
and as the pace of the train did not exceed twenty miles an hour the 
train was six hours in accomplishing the journey. 

Sending their baggage from the railway station to the hotel our 
friends drove directly to the cathedral, where they passed the little 
that remained of the day. Cordova contains nothing of importance 
besides the cathedral, and therefore Frank and Fred planned to see 
it on the day of arrival, and be ready to start for Seville at a reason- 
ably early hour in the morning. 

" We had read and heard a great deal about the cathedral or mosque 
of Cordova," said Fred in his journal, " but were not prepared for the 
beautiful building that we saw. They call it here La Mezquita, which 
comes from mezgad, an Arabic word which means to worship. It is 
really a mosque which w^as built on the spot formerly occupied by a 
cathedral, and, previous to the cathedral, was occupied by a Eoman tem- 
ple dedicated to Janus. This is its history : 

'' When the Arabs captured Cordova in the eighth century they con- 
verted half of the cathedral into a mosque and used it for their place 
of worship, leaving the other half for the Christians. Seventy years 
later the Arab ruler determined to build a fine temple, and so he bought 
from the Christians the other half of the cathedral, paying for it in 
gold, and allowing them to build another church in which they could 
go on with their worship. The new building was begun in the year 
786, on the site of the Christian church, but it was not finished during 
the time of the Caliph who began it. His son continued the work and 
completed the building, which certainly must have cost a great deal of 
money even at the low prices then prevailing. 

" The mosque was composed originally of eleven alleys running from 
north to south ; later eight more alleys were added, and also an orange 
garden at one side. The columns that form the alley-ways and support 
the roof are of the Moorish style of architecture, and are generally made 




THE MEZQUITA. 



of marbles of different colors. The whole structure is enclosed by walls 
from thirty to sixty feet high and about six feet thick. 

" The general plan of the Mezquita of Cordova is that of the Kair- 
wan in Morocco, and it is said to be the finest type in Europe of the 
true Mohammedan temple: According to the figures in the guide-book 
the mosque is three hundred and sixty feet wide by four hundred long. 



510 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

Stop and think a moment, and you will see that it is a very large build- 
ing. The pillars or columns are divided into twenty longitudinal ave- 
nues and forty transverse ones ; the walls are lined with chapels, which 
reduce the visible rows of columns to seventeen one way and thirteen 
the other. The great number of columns suggests a forest. 

" The roof is about forty feet high, and was originally flat. There 
was also a beautiful ceiling of wood richly panelled and gilded ; but it 
decayed, and was removed more than two hundred years ago. There 
are nine hundred and twenty columns now remaining, and many of them 
were brought from long distances away. Some were quarried in Africa 
or in Asia Minor, and brought here by the Komans for the original 
temple ; some came from Egypt and some from Italy, but by far the 
greater number are from quarries within thirty miles of Cordova. 

" Since the Moors were driven out of Spain portions of the mosque 
have been converted into a church. We strolled leisurely through the 
building admiring its beauty, and were very reluctant to leave it. We 
passed through the Gate of Pardon, under a lofty bell-tower — a gate 
which is said to have taken its name from an old custom that allowed 
€riminals to seek shelter beneath it. Any criminal who could succeed in 
distancing his pursuers enough to pass through the Gate of Pardon and 
reach the central aisle of the building was safe — at least, for the time. 

" On one of the marble pillars there is a faint inscription representing 
the Saviour on the cross, but it is so faint that we would not have seen 
it except that our attention was called to it. The tradition is that 
during the Moorish rule a Christian captive was chained to this pillar 
for ten years, and that he scratched this inscription by means of his 
finger-nail. It is a sad subject of contemplation, and we did not linger 
long at that spot. How much truth there is in the tradition I am 
unable to say, but we were rendered very sceptical concerning it by 
finding a similar inscription on another pillar in a distant part of the 
building. The guide explained that the one which we first saw was the 
genuine one ; he did not add that the second was spurious, but of course 
that was the natural inference from his remark. 

"A very interesting part of the Mezquita is the shrine, or mihrab, of 
the Moors, which is placed in the part of the building nearest to Mecca. 
It has a ceiling in the shape of a quarter-globe cut from a single piece 
of marble, and it must have required a great deal of engineering skill to 
place the ceiling where it is. The surface of this marble is beautifully 
enamelled, and when the light of several candles was thrown upon it, it 
sparkled as though it had been covered with diamonds. 



ORNAMENTS OF THE MEZQUITA. 



511 



'' This was the holiest part of the building when it was a mosque, 
and in it there was a stand for the Koran which is said to have cost an 
amount of money equal to five million dollars. The volume of the Koran 
was incased in gold tissue embroidered witli precious stones, and all the 
decorations were of the most elaborate and costly character. All 
believers in the religion of Islam were required to approach this place 
prostrate, and the floor of solid marble is worn perceptibly where the 
faithful crept to the shrine to offer it their homage. 

" At the chapels and shrines in the Mezquita we saw many wor- 
shippers scattered here and there, the most of them being women, either 
singly or in groups ; when we left the building we went into the Court 
of Oranges, and from there into the street. We were accosted by ped- 
dlers, who tried to induce us to purchase articles fabricated from Cor- 
dovan leather, small cups hammered out of silver coins, and some elab- 




ON THE ROAD NEAR CORDOVA. 



orate fihgree-work in silver and gold. Beggars were numerous and 
persistent, and there was the same air of languor and deliberation that 
we had already noticed in the cities of the coast. 

" Cordova has a population to-day of about fifty thousand ; its most 
prosperous period was in the days of the Moors, when it had a million 



512 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



inhabitants, nearly a thousand baths, and hundreds of mosques. Many 
of the buildings erected by the Moors have been destroyed, and the 
greater part of what one sees to-day is of Spanish construction." 

In the morning Frank telegraphed to Doctor Bronson that the party 

expected to arrive at 
Seville in time to take 
lunch with him at 
the hotel, provided the 
train kept to its ad- 
vertised schedule. It 
reached Seville only 
fifteen minutes behind 
time, and therefore 
did not materially in- 
terfere with the plans 
of the travellers. 

The Doctor was 
w^aiting for them at 
the station, and the 
meeting was a most 
agreeable one to all 
concerned. Mrs. Bas- 
sett and Mary did most 
of the talking, but 
their eagerness to tell 
what they had seen 
did not interfere with 
the use of their eyes 
on their way from the 
station to the hotel. 
Mary knew that they 
would pass quite near 
the Alcazar, and kept a 
keen watch for it ; her 
vigilance was rewarded, though not until she had mistaken the Gov- 
ernment tobacco-factory for the Moorish palace, and had had her error 
corrected by Doctor Bronson who rode with them. 

" I am sure we shall find this city full of interest," Mrs. Bassett 
remarked as they reached the hotel. " The buildings have a very sub- 
stantial appearance, and a venerable one at the same time." 




SPANISH GYPSIES, 



MOORISH HOUSES IN SEVILLE. 513 

''They are venerable enough," replied the Doctor, "as they are 
mostly those that the Moors left when they were driven out of the city 
in 1247 by their Spanish conquerors." 

" And these houses have been standing more than six hundred years ! 
You surprise me ; they don't look as old as that." 

" I don't mean that all of them are of Moorish origin," the Doctor 
answered, "since many new buildings have been erected in modern 
times. But certainly a considerable proportion of the houses of Seville 
are practically the same as they were when the Moors lived in them ; 
their cool courts and gardens remain, and the only changes in their inte- 
riors are such as were required to adapt them to Spanish customs." 

Mary called attention to the windows, which came nearly to the 
ground and had heavy gratings upon them to keep out intruders. 
Frank said that though the gratings excluded burglars and other visit- 
ors, they did not hinder conversation. He added that it was not at all 
improper for those going along the street to stop at a window to talk 
with friends inside, and that gentlemen frequently took this method of 
conversing with the ladies whom they admired. " If we stroll about in 
the evening," said he, " we will be quite likely to see a considerable 
number of these windows occupied, the ladies of the family being inside 
and one or more gentlemen standing close to the grating outside." 

Mrs. Bassett remarked upon the narrowness and crookedness of the 
streets of Seville, but added that she ought to be familiar enough with 
streets of this sort after the many that she had seen in Europe. Doctor 
Bronson explained that there was method in the plans of the builders 
of Seville, as it was desirable to keep out the heat as much as possible, 
and this result was secured by the narrow streets, the high buildings, 
and the spacious gardens in the interior courts. '* You will see how the 
Moors built their houses," said the Doctor, " as the hotel where you are 
to stop is one of them. Here we are !" 

As he spoke the carriage halted, and the party alighted and entered 
the porch which led to the interior. This porch brought the strangers 
to the cancel^ a gateway of open iron-work of such a beautiful design 
that they stopped to contemplate it before passing inside. Mary asked 
if all the houses of Seville had gateways of this sort, and was informed 
that they would be found in the majority of the dwellings in the city. 

" Here is the court-yard and a fountain !" Mary exclaimed. " It is 
cooler here than on the street, and what a delightful little spot of green 
it is, and so unexpected ! I wasn't looking for it." 

" You will find many such courts and gardens in Seville," replied 
33' 



514 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

the Doctor, " and I'm sure you'll admire the taste of the Moors when 
you know more about their work when they were here." 

"I admire it already," was the reply, "and am sure I shall have great 
respect for the Moors before I have done with the sights of Seville." 

Rooms had been secured for the travellers by Doctor Bronson, and 
as soon as the dust of travel had been removed the party sat down 
to luncheon. When it was over they went out to see the sights of 
the place and study the people. 

" I suppose we shall go first to the Giralda tower and the cathe- 
dral," Mary remarked, as they passed through the porch already 
mentioned and reached the street. 

" Yes," replied Frank ; " to see Seville without the tower and the 
cathedral would be like giving 'Hamlet' without Hamlet, to use a 
comparison which is familiar to all English-speaking people. Do you 
know when the Giralda was built ?" 

" Certainly I do," responded the girl. " It was built in 1196 by a 
Moorish architect ; let me see if I can recall his name — yes, it was Abu- 
Jusuf Yacub, and he was famous for other works besides this tower. 
He built the great mosque of Seville, repaired the Roman aqueduct 
which supplied the city with water, built a portion of the city walls, 
and made a bridge of boats across the Guadalquivir. He must have 
been a man of extraordinary ability, and I'm glad his name has come 
down to us. There, that must be the Giralda !" she exclaimed, as she 
pointed in the direction of the celebrated tower ; " I know it by the 
pictures I've seen of it. Isn't it beautiful?" 

"Yes, that is the Giralda," replied Frank. "Doesn't it remind you 
of something you have already seen ?" 

Mary paused a moment, and then said it made her think of the 
tower of Madison Square Garden in New York ; she wondered if the 
American architect had taken the Giralda as his model, and was not at 
all surprised to learn that such was the case, 

"Then I'll tell my friends at home that if they cannot come to 
Seville, they can console themselves by standing in Madison Square and 
contemplating the tower that rises at its north-east corner," she answered. 

" Not only is the tower imitated," said Frank, " but the figure on 
the top — at least, in its uses as a vane. The figure on the Giralda repre- 
sents ' Faith,' while that of the Garden tower in New York portrays 
' Diana the Huntress.' Both are of very graceful design." 

" I like the American sculptor's work better than that of the one 
who made the Giralda figure," replied Mary. " Who was he ?" 




A WATER-CARRIER. 



516 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

" He was an Italian, Bartolome Morel," said Frank, " and the figure 
was cast in 1568. It weighs twenty-five hundred pounds, and is four- 
teen feet high, but it is so delicately poised that it turns with the least 
wind, just as does the ' Diana ' with which ^N^ew-Yorkers are familiar." 

Doctor Bronson and Mrs. Bassett went to the cathedral, while the 
young trio ascended the tower. The ascent is by a series of inclined 
planes, like those in the Campanile at Venice, and some other towers 
that our friends had previously visited. When they reached the belfry 
Frank explained to his sister that the uses of the tower had not changed 
materially with the change of ownership. "When the Moors were 
here," said he, "the voice of the mueddin summoned the people to 
prayer, and the tower was built to give him a commanding position 
whence he could be heard for a considerable distance. ^N'owadays the 
bells perform the same duty for the Christian successors of the moslems, 
and it is safe to say that they can be heard much farther than the 
strongest-lunged mueddin who ever lived." 

" I can readily believe so," said Mary, as she looked at the twenty- 
two bells which occupy the place. Each bell bears the name of a saint ; 
the largest is called Santa Maria, and weighs eighteen tons. Two of the 
bells are fixed in their places, but the others are upon swinging beams ; 
they are not all rung at once, but several of them are sounded daily to 
notify the populace of the hours of worship in the cathedral. 

Mary had read that there was a colony of pigeons and hawks occu- 
pying the belfry, and she looked around for them. There was no difii- 
culty in finding the pigeons, as they were circling about the tower or 
sitting on the beams which supported the bells, but the hawks appeared 
to have taken their departure — at least, for a time. The boy who 
accompanied the party as guide succeeded in pointing out one of the 
predatory birds flying high in air, far above them, as though with the 
intention of swooping down upon a pigeon whenever his dinner-time 
arrived. Pigeons and hawks seem to dwell together in harmony; 
probably the most harmonious time is when a pigeon has found a lodg- 
ing-place in the stomach of a hawk. 

One of the bell-ringers offered to show the visitors how the bells 
sounded, and he touched up several of them for the entertainment of 
the strangers. The noise they made was almost deafening, and caused 
Mary to put her fingers to her ears, though it did not specially disturb 
Frank and Fred. Further to amuse them the ringer jumped on the 
beam of one of the bells while it was swinging violently, and poised 
himself there as it went to and fro. The bell was quite at the edge 




A STREET CORNER, SEVILLE. 



518 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

of the tower, and as he was swung outward a slip would have sent him 
to the pavement, three hundred feet below. He wanted to repeat the 
performance with some of the other bells; but Frank told him they 
had seen quite enough of it, and did not care to have him risk his life 
again even if he did it for nothing. 

" The view from the belfry is a magnificent one," said Fred, " as it 
permitted us to look upon the whole city at our feet, and embraced a 
wide extent of country when we turned our vision towards the horizon. 
We could look into the gardens that are scattered among the houses, 
and the contrast of the deep green of the foliage with the tiled roofs 
and white walls was especially noticeable. The walls of Seville told of 
its antiquity, and so did the Alcazar and other edifices which were the 
work of the Moors. For a long distance we traced the windings of the 
river which has often been the theme of poets, and is believed by many 
Spaniards to be the most beautiful stream in the world. It was inter- 
esting to try to trace out some of the streets with their many windings, 
but after attempting several we gave up the effort. The streets are so 
crooked that it is advisable for a stranger who strolls out of sight of the 
door of his hotel to take along a boy as a guide, if he wants to be sure 
of finding his way back again without asking somebody or hailing a 
cab. One street resembles the letter S. 

" Directly below us," continued Fred, " was the cathedral, which 
covers a large area of ground, where formerly stood a Moorish mosque. 
The cathedral is one of the largest churches of Spain and also among 
the finest, and it is no wonder that the people of Seville are proud of it. 

" When we left the Giralda Tve went to the cathedral, where we 
found Mrs. Bassett and Doctor Bronson, who had agreed to meet us 
there. The mosque that stood here was used as a church from the 
time the Spaniards captured Seville until 1401, when some portions of 
it were in a dilapidated condition. It was therefore pulled down and 
the erection of the cathedral begun. 

"The original form of the mosque was retained, so that the church 
is in the form of a parallelogram, 414 by 217 feet, and not in the shape 
of a cross like nearly all the churches in other European countries. The 
erection of the church took more than a hundred years, and the plans 
were changed two or three times, so that the building is not symmetri- 
cal throughout. But it is a grand edifice and contains many fine works 
of art, besides being in itself an art work of no small importance. 

" Of course we all wanted to see the slab in the pavement which 
was intended to mark the resting-place of Columbus, and is supposed 



by many to be his sepulchre. The bones 
of his son rest beneath the slab which 
bears the inscription — 'A Castilla y a 
Leon ]N"uevo mundo dio Colon.' 

" The Sevilians say that Fernando 
Columbus, who lies buried here, would 
have been a great man if his fa- 
ther had not been so much greater. 
He accompanied his father to Amer- 
ica in 1502, and after his return 
took up his residence at Seville, 
where he devoted himself to study 
and authorship, and found- 




ed a library which still 
exists in a building close 
to the cathedral. In a cab- 
inet in this hbrary we saw the 
manuscript accounts of the 
voyages of Columbus, together 
with some notes written with 
the hand of the great naviga- 
tor, and a manuscript that he 
wrote while in prison to prove 
to the Inquisition that his 
discovery of the ^N'ew World 
had been prophesied in the 
Scriptures. 



THE GIRALDA TOWER. 




MAIN ENTRANCE TO TIIK CATHKDRAL, SKVILLK. 



CATHEDRAL TREASURES. 521 

" But I am forgetting the cathedral and its treasures. This is the 
city where the great painter Murillo was born, and where he produced 
many of his celebrated works. Our attention was drawn to one of 
them soon after we entered the church; it is called 'Angel de la 
Guarda,' or Guardian Angel, and represents an angel holding by the 
hand a beautiful child. It is a charming picture, and we lingered be- 
fore it long enough, let me hope, to impress it indelibly on our memo- 
ries. There are several other paintings by Murillo in the cathedral, but 
this is conceded to be the finest of the collection. 

" In one of the chapels is a famous painting representing San Anto- 
nio, which has been greatly admired. In 1874 it was cut out of the 
canvas and carried away. I^ews of the theft was telegraphed to all the 
Spanish ministers and consuls in other countries, and a careful watch 
was kept for the stolen painting. The thieves took it to New York 
and offered it to Mr. Schaus, a picture-dealer in that city. He immedi- 
ately suspected its character and secured the return of the precious 
fragment, which has been restored so carefully to its place that we 
could not, though making the closest scrutiny, find any trace of the 
mutilation that the painting had undergone. 

" We spent an hour or more in the cathedral, and then left the build- 
ing, being obliged to run the gantlet of a crowd of beggars at the door. 
There is said to be a great deal of wealth in Seville ; whether this is 
true or not I am unable to say, but there is certainly a great deal of 
poverty, or the pretence of it. At almost every step we were pestered 
by beggars in all stages of degradation, and with a treasury of sores 
and stumps of limbs which they held up for our inspection. If the city 
contains its reputed wealth, I would respectfully suggest that it use a 
portion of its money to make a home for its beggars and keep them 
in it for the rest of their lives. 

" They seemed to anticipate our movements, as we constantly en- 
countered the same beggars in different parts of the city. Everywhere 
in our rounds, from the door of the hotel till we returned to it^, we en- 
countered them, and it was impossible to shake them off." 



CHAPTER XXYIIL 

THE ALCAZAR.— PEDRO THE CRUEL, AND HOW HE OBTAINED HIS NAME. — MUR- 
DERING HIS GUESTS.— GARDEN OF THE ALCAZAR.— CONCEALED FOUNTAINS.- 
PALACE OF THE DUKE OF MONTPENSIER. — FINE COLLECTION OF PAINTINGS. 
—PLAZA DE TOROS. — MARKET OF SEVILLE. — STREETS SHADED FROM THE 
SUN. — SIGHTS AND SCENES IN THE MARKET. — CALENTITOS. — SUBJECTS FOR 
THE WORK OF ARTISTS. — SPANISH POLITENESS. — SOME RULES OF CASTILIAN 
ETIQUETTE.— AN OLD SHOPPING CUSTOM. — ITALICA, AND ROMAN REMAINS 
THERE.— A SURPRISE.— VOYAGE ON A YACHT.— DOWN THE GUADALQUIVIR.— 
CADIZ.— TRAFALGAR.— LORD NELSON AND THE GREAT BATTLE.— GIBRALTAR. 
—SIGHTS ON THE ROCK. — THE GALLERIES. — SIGNAL-STATION. — GIBRALTAR 
APES.— EUROPA POINT.— THE END. 



(J ^_ \^^mh]^\ 













COSTER-MONGERS OF SEVILLE. 



/ \ 



OF course the travellers did not fail to visit the Alcazar, the famous 
palace whose history is closely connected with that of Seville dur- 
ing the long period that the city was the capital of Spain. Its name 
comes from the Arabic al-Kasr (the house of Caesar), and it stands on 




THE GARDEN OF THE ALCAZAR. 



524 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

the site of a Roman palace which was built by one of the Caesars. It 
has sufiFered considerably by the many changes it has undergone, but is 
still a magnificent building and well deserves a visit. 

'' It was not altogether easy," said Frank, " to determine what parts 
of the building were Moorish, as the Spanish restorers seem to have 
tried in several instances to imitate the work of their predecessors. 
The columns in the vestibule where we entered are said to be Roman, 
and belonged to the original palace, which was smaller than the present 
one. There is a grand portal or gateway, which was built by Don 
Pedro the Cruel, and he made sure that his connection with the work 
would be known by causing an inscription to be placed in a prominent 
position on the wall to record the fact. 

" Perhaps you may wish to know why he was called ' The Cruel,' in 
order to distinguish him from other Don Pedros of his time. I'll tell 
you. He invited his brother to a banquet at the palace, and then 
caused him to be murdered in the very room where the feast was held. 
If he took a dislike to any one he generally concealed his real feelings 
until a convenient opportunity, when by professing friendship he 
brought his victim into his power and then ordered him to be killed. 
It is related of him that he invited Abu Said, the usurper of the Moor- 
ish throne of Granada, to come to Seville under promise of safety, the 
usurper being so closely pressed by the rightful heir that he could not 
stay longer in Granada. When Abu Said came he was cordially wel- 
comed by Pedro and a feast was given in his honor. After the feast 
was over he was put to death, in order that Don Pedro might seize 
upon the treasure of jewels that the Moor had brought from Granada. 

" One of the jewels that was thus secured by Pedro is now in the 
crown of England in the Tower of London, and no doubt some of the 
readers of these pages have seen it. I wish I had known its history 
when I was at the Tower, as it would have added to the interest of 
looking at the crown. Don Pedro gave it to Edward, the Black 
Prince, after the battle of J^avarette, and it is the ' fair ruby, great as 
a racket - ball,' which Queen Elizabeth showed to the ambassador of 
Mary Queen of Scots. The ambassador tried to secure it for his royal 
mistress by entreating Elizabeth to give it to her, but the latter declined. 

"The kings of Spain who lived here at different times must have 
been a queer lot," continued Frank. " Charles Y. caused fireplaces to 
be made in a portion of the palace ; he is said to have been of a very 
chilly temperament, and rarely found the weather too warm for him. 
Philip y. caused an annex to be built, and he lived in it almost entirely 



IN THE ALCAZAR. 



525 



alone for two years and more, occupying his time with religious pen- 
ances and fishing in an artificial pond. We saw the place where he 
fished ; it is a tank rather than a pond, and the story is that the fish he 
caught were placed there from day to day, and kept in a state of hun- 
ger so that they would bite eagerly at his hook. The garden contain- 
ing the tank is very pretty, and said to be much in the same condition 
as when the palace was a royal habitation. 

" There is a labyrinth in the garden and we were invited to enter it, 
but declined, as our time was limited and we did not care to be lost in 
the mazes. We were sprinkled just a little, not enough to do any harm, 
by fountains concealed in the walks — the same fountains with which 
Don Pedro used to amuse himself by sprinkling the visitors and the la- 
dies of the court. The garden contains all kinds of flowering plants 
that will grow in the 
climate of Seville, 
and the divisions be- 
tween the compart- 
ments are made by 
orange -trees, whose 
perfume fills the air. 
They showed us the 
hooks where Don Pe- 
dro used to hang up 
the heads of people 
who had fallen under 
his royal displeasure, 
so that he could look 
at them from the win- 
dows of his private 
apartment by way of 
entertainment. We 
asked the guide why 
it was there were no 
heads on the hooks at 
the present time ; and 

he answered with a very solemn shake of the head, as though the 
question was a matter which was entirely beyond his comprehension." 

Our friends visited the palace of the Duke of Montpensier, which is 
not far from the Alcazar, and is chiefly interesting on account of its 
fine collection of pictures by the Spanish masters. There are excellent 




PRIEST AND PURVEYOR. 



526 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

specimens of the work of Murillo, Yelasquez, Morales, Eibera, and oth- 
ers, besides paintings by celebrated artists of other nationalities tha*n 
Spanish. The palace can only be visited by travellers when the duke is 
absent, which happened to be the case when our friends were at Seville. 

They also went to see the bull-ring, which they could do without 
compunction, as there was no fight on hand for that day. It is capa- 
ble of seating ten or twelve thousand spectators, or, at any rate, it will 
hold the last-mentioned number, though it may not provide all with 
places to sit down. The fights at Easter are said to be second only to 
those of Madrid, and the bulls of this part of Spain have long been re- 
nowned for their fine qualities. The management of the Plaza de To- 
ros (Bull-ring) of Seville is in the hands of an equestrian society which 
was formed three centuries ago and still exists. Its original object was 
to encourage tournaments and the spirit of chivalry, but it has been a 
long time since any tournaments were held here, except those for the 
slaughter of innocent quadrupeds. 

" On our second morning in Seville," said Fred, " we got up very 
early to visit the market, which should be seen by six o'clock at the 
latest. The market is held at this hour to avoid the great heat of the 
day, and the narrow streets leading to it are covered with awnings or 
sails to shade them and the pedestrians who are obliged to wend their 
way along. It would be easier to say what is not in the market rather 
than to name everything we saw there. There was an abundance of 
fruit, vegetables, and flowers, and everything was so cheap that we 
found it difficult to resist the temptation to purchase, just for the sake 
of economy, whether we wanted the articles or not. 

" We passed several butchers' stalls, and our guide told us that one 
of them Avas devoted to the sale of the flesh of the bulls killed in the 
fights at the Plaza de Toros. Chickens, geese, and other products of 
the poultry-yard were in abundance, some of them alive and making 
themselves heard by their cackling, and others slaughtered and picked 
ready for the kitchen. We gave little attention to these things, as they 
are to be found in markets everywhere ; what we specially came to see 
were the wares peculiar to Seville, or, at all events, to Spain. 

" One part of the market, or fair, was devoted to second-hand cloth- 
ing, boots, shoes, hats, etc. ; the boots and shoes were spread on the 
pavement, while the garments were hung against the wall, or on little 
racks improvised out of poles, which also did duty in supporting awn- 
ings for the shelter of the venders. Household utensils in iron or pot- 
tery were abundant ; the pottery was often made into fantastic shapes, 




A WATER-STAND. 



628 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

and the ornamentation upon it displayed the prevalence of good taste 
among its makers. There were numerous stands where one could ob- 
tain chocolate or coffee, together with cakes fried in oil, and bearing a 
strong resemblance to the doughnut or cruller of New England and 
New York. The Spaniards call them calentitos, and as they are longer 
and more twisted than the cruller, it is quite proper that they should 
have a name of four syllables instead of two. 

" Mary w^as thirsty, and asked for a glass of water. ' Here is a 
water-shop,' said our guide, as he turned aside to a stand, and asked for 
a glass of the liquid. A woman behind the little counter filled a glass 
from a decanter, and handed it out with the grace of a duchess waiting 
upon a queen. At one side was a bench on which two men were seated, 
each with a glass of water in his hand, and each smoking a cigarette. 
Drinking-water is a commodity of value in all Spanish cities ; it is car- 
ried around on the backs of donkeys, or on the heads of servants, and 
the water-fountain where the kegs and other receptacles are filled is a 
favorite meeting -place for servants, who exchange gossip concerning 
their families and acquaintances, and are never in a hurry to go away. 

" Of course there were barber-shops in the market-place, and several 
times we saw the barbers busy with their customers in full view of any 
one who chose to stop to look at them. Mary said she wanted to see 
the 'Barber of Seville,' the Figaro who was made famous in opera 
years ago. She selected a handsome young fellow gorgeously attired 
in sash and knee-breeches, and endeavored to make a sketch of him ; 
evidently he was quite w^illing to have his picture taken, as he looked 
around and smiled while she was busy with paper and pencil, his smile 
changing to a slight frown when she closed her sketch-book and went 
on without exhibiting the result of her w^ork. 

" Speaking of sketches, there is an abundance of material here for 
the pencil of the artist, either in making figures of men, women, and 
children, or putting on paper and canvas the quaint and picturesque 
house-fronts that present themselves at every turn. A goodly number 
of artists from England and France have found their way here, but 
comparatively few Americans ; we have seen several artists since we 
came here and heard of others, but not one of them was from our native 
land, with just a single exception. 

"The women of Seville," continued Fred, ''are famous for their 
beauty, and we have seen some pretty faces during our stay, but the 
proportion is so small that we think the handsome ones do not often 
venture where they can be seen by strangers. The prettiest girl I have 



SPANISH LACES. 



529 



seen was selling flowers in the market ; she was poorly dressed and 
barefooted, but she carried herself with a queenly dignity that secured 
the admiration of all of us. We have seen several handsome women in 
the cathedral or its neighborhood, but not many ; they were of the true 
type of southern Spain, with black hair and eyes, and wore on their 
heads the mantillas or veils peculiar to the country and exceedingly be- 
coming to the wearers, especially to the younger ones. 

" Mrs. Bassett and Mary have taken a great fancy to these mantillas, 
which are made of lace ; they have asked for and examined them in the 
shops, but found the prices too high to encourage extensive purchases. 
Ten, fifteen, or twenty dollars were demanded for lace veils of ordinary 
quality, and as for the fine ones, they range anywhere from fifty dollars 
up to one hundred or 
more. Quite likely a 
resident of Seville could 
buy much cheaper than 
strangers ; we are told 
that the dealers always 
ask more for their 
goods than they expect 



to receive, even when 
they announce on their 
signs that all prices are 
absolutely fixed." 

Our friends were 
much impressed during 
their stay in Spain with 
the universal politeness 
Avhich prevailed every- 
where. Here is what 
Mary wrote on this 
interesting subject: 

" Everybody is polite to everybody else ; even the beggars salute each 
other as ' Senor y Caballero,' which means ' Lord and Knight,' but they 
don't expect to be called so by those of whom they seek alms. Every 
gentleman is called ' Don,' which is the equivalent of ' Sir ' in English, 
though it really means ' Dominus' or ' Lord.' It is always prefixed to the 
first name and not to the surname, thus following the English use of 
' Sir.' Frank is called 'Don Frank Bassett,' or perhaps 'Don Francisco 
Bassetti,' and a Spaniard would no more think of speaking of him as 

34 




QUENCHING THIRST. 



530 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

'Don Bassett' than an Englishman of good education would allude to 
Sir Eandolph Churchill as ' Sir Churchill.' 

" I asked Doctor Bronson what was to be done when one didn't 
know a Spanish gentleman's Christian name, and wished to address 
him. He said that in such a case it was necessary to insert ' De ' after 
'Seiior,' the equivalent of the French appellation 'De' or of the German 
'Yon.' If his name happened to be 'Herrara' you must call him 'Senor 
de Herrara,' the name of a gentleman, and not ' Seiior Herrara,' which 
would make him nobody at all. 

"A married lady is called 'Seiiora,' and an unmarried one 'Senorita,' 
so the Doctor tells me. In case of doubt it is well to call a lady ' Seno- 
rita,' as you thereby imply that she is young ; Spanish ladies are just as 
sensitive about their age and good looks as English or American ones — 
at least, that's what I'm told, and I've no reason to believe otherwise. 

'' When a gentleman makes a call to deliver a letter of introduction 
he is received with a great deal of ceremony. He is led up to the sofa 
in the best parlor of the house, and seated at the right hand of his host ; 
his hat is placed on a chair, as though it were an individual, or perhaps 
the owner is asked to put it on his head, which of course he declines to 
do. When he leaves the house the host accompanies him to the door, 
and if he wishes to again see the visitor there he says, ' This house is at 
your disposal whenever you please to favor it.' If he omits to use this 
politeness it is a delicate hint that he does not care to continue the ac- 
quaintance. Frank says he Avishes w^e had something of the kind in 
our own manners and customs at home. 

" When a gentleman has been making a call on a lady and rises to 
leave, he says, ' Senora, I place myself at your feet,' though he really 
stands all the while. She replies, ' I kiss jour hand, caballero ' (which 
she doesn't) ; ' may you depart with God and continue AvelL' Then the 
gentleman says, ' May you remain with God,' bows, and takes his de- 
parture, the lady retaining her seat all the while, as ladies in Spain 
rarely rise to receive a gentleman visitor, but they w^elcome feminine 
ones with kisses both on arrival and departure. 

" When two gentlemen meet on the street or in any public place 
they salute each other by raising their hats, bowing with great dignity, 
and then, though not always, shaking hands. It is the duty of each to 
inquire after the health of the other, and also that of his wife and chil- 
dren, and of his parents, if they are known to be living. 

" If two gentlemen are walking together and pass the house of 
either, it is the custom of the owner of the dwelling to ask the other if 




"the barber op SEVILLE." 



h.e will not stop and rest a little ' in his own ' house. The house is thus 
treated as though it belonged to the man who is asked to visit it ; in 
the same stretch of politeness a Spaniard presents a thing that is ad- 
mired to the one who admires it, but of course he does not expect that 
it will be taken. The one thus addressed replies with a bow, and with 



532 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

a set phrase like this : ' Thanks, it is ah^eady in most excellent hands, 
and cannot possibly better itself by any change.' 

" In a railway carriage a gentleman never lights a cigar, or partakes 
of food or drink, without inviting his fellow-passengers to share it with 
him, and the same is the case if travellers happen to be eating at the 
roadside when others pass by. It would be the height of rudeness to 
fail to tender the invitation, and equally rude to accept it unless it 
should be repeated and pressed two or three times. 

" There used to be a custom for gentlemen who went out shopping 
with ladies to pay for everything the}^ bought, but it is said to be 
pretty nearly obsolete at the present time. I can imagine that a gen- 
tleman with a limited purse would be very chary of accompanying a 
lady on a shopping excursion under such circumstances, and certainly 
he would have good reason for being so. It also was the custom, Avhen- 
ever a gentleman saw ladies whom he knew taking luncheon in a res- 
taurant, to call their waiter and privately settle their account without 
asking their permission or even speaking to them on that occasion. 
Frank suggested that if such a custom were introduced into Kew York 
it would give the opportunity for waiters in fashionable restaurants to 
add materially to their incomes, as they would forget to tell the ladies 
that their bills had been paid. This custom has declined somewhat in 
Spain, and will probably disappear altogether, along with the one I just 
mentioned about shopping. Certainly it ought to do so. 

" It is considered very impolite to ask a question of a stranger with- 
out prefacing it with some form of civility. There are three phrases 
which we learned as soon as we came into Spain, and we keep them 
constantly on hand for instant use. Here they are : 

" Digame usted (please tell me), cleme ustecl (please give me), and 
Kagame usted el favor (be so kind). 

" The same rule appUes not only in Spain but all over the Conti- 
nent, where English and American travellers often give offence by their 
abrupt way of asking questions. Frank and Fred say that the English- 
speaking race has good reason to be proud of what it has done for the 
world in commerce, invention, and industry, but ought to be ashamed 
of its rude manners and lack of politeness generally. But I don't want 
to write a homily, and so I'll stop at once." 

An excursion was made in the country near Seville ; it included a 
visit to the ruins of the Koman amphitheatre at Italica, which was the 
birthplace of the Emperors Trajan, Hadrian, and Theodosius, and was at 
one time a place of considerable splendor. Seville and Italica were at 



A ROMAN TOWN. 



533 



obtained possession of Spain they 
ille to have the better site, and from 



one time rivals ; after the Moors 
abandoned Itahca, considering Sev 
that time onward the 
material of Italica was 
carried away by any 
one who chose to re- 
move it for building 
purposes elsewhere. 
There is now only a 
small village on the 
site where Italica once 
stood. Mary said that 
all the villagers but 
one were beggars, and 
importuned the party 
without cessation dur- 
ing their stay ; the one 
who refrained was ill 
in bed, and could not 
turn over without as- 
sistance, and they de- 
clined an invitation to 
see him and give him 
a chance. 

On the morning 
after the visit to Ital- 
ica Doctor Bronson 
received a telegram, 
which came while the 
party was at break- 
fast. Immediately on 
receiving it he told the 
others that he wished 
them to be ready to 
leave the hotel at ten 
o'clock, as he had a 
very pleasant surprise 
in store for them. 

"Must we be ready 
with bag and baggage?" queried Mrs. Bassett, addressing the Doctor. 




A STREET IN SEVILLE. 



534 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

^'With bag and baggage," replied Doctor Bronson; "we're going 
to leave Seville for another place of interest." 

"All right," responded Mrs. Bassett; and Mary nodded assent, as did 
also Frank and Fred. A few minutes later the party broke up. 

Promptly at the hour named all were ready, and waiting for the 
word to move. The baggage was sent off in advance in charge of a 
trusty porter, to whom the Doctor had given the necessary instructions,, 
and in a little while the travellers followed in carriages. The drivers 
took the route in the direction of the steamboat quay, near which were 
great heaps of oranges waiting to be boxed and shipped, while at other 
heaps men and women were busy wrapping the fruit in paper and 
placing it carefully in the cases intended for it. 

As the carriages came to a halt Mary whispered to her mother that 
she thought she knew what the surprise was that the Doctor had 
planned and was keeping so very secret. 

" What do you think it is f Mrs. Bassett asked. 

a We're going somewhere by water," replied Mary ; " perhaps ta 
Cadiz by steamboat on the river." 

" We'll know very soon," was the response. Just as the words- 
were uttered Doctor Bronson, who was in the other and foremost car- 
riage, called out to them that the boat was waiting for them. They 
looked, but could see no boat other than a steam-^^acht at anchor in 
the river, and a small tow-boat used for moving sailing-craft up and 
down the stream and bringing them to their anchorage. 

While they looked a boat was seen to put oif from the yacht and 
approach the landing-place. The Doctor came to the carriage and as- 
sisted its occupants to alight, saying as he did so that they were to go 
on board the yacht at once, their baggage having already been sent 
there. Within a quarter of an hour they were standing on the yacht's 
deck, and her anchor was lifted preparatory to her departure down 
the river towards the broad Atlantic. 

"AVe are going to Gibraltar direct," said Doctor Bronson. "It 
will take about six hours to descend the river to the ocean, and ten 
more to reach Gibraltar. We want to get out of the river during day- 
light, and that's why we are starting now ; morning will bring us to 
the famous rock, and you are such good sailors that I know you'll 
enjoy a night at sea, even if it is a little rough." 

" Of course we shall," said Mrs. Bassett ; " but where in the world 
did you get this delightful yacht ?" 

" It belongs to an Enghsh gentleman whom I've known a long 




THE MOORISH GATE, SEVILLE. 



time," was the reply. " He was in Seville when I came here, and in- 
vited me to take a cruise with him ; but I was obliged to decline. He 
went to Gibraltar by rail the day before you arrived, having been 
summoned there by telegraph ; he was obliged to leave his yacht be- 
hind, as she was undergoing some repairs to her engines that were not 
completed till yesterday. The telegram I received this morning placed 



536 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

the boat at my disposal to take you to Gibraltar, and the opportunity 
for the excursion was too good to be missed." 

" We'll give your friend a vote of thanks," said Mrs. Bassett. 

" Yes, and three cheers," chimed in Mary. 

" Three times three," suggested Frank. 

" And a tiger," added Fred, " provided we can find the animal at 
Gibraltar, or anywhere else on our way." 

Conversation then turned to the Guadalquivir and the beauty for 
which it is famed. Mary remarked that instead of being of the ceru- 
lean blue about which poets rave, it was as turbid as the Tiber or the 
Mississippi. '' It may be blue at some seasons of the year," she added, 
" but certainl}^ it isn't blue now." 

"It is said to be constantly wearing away its banks in the lower 
part of its course," remarked the Doctor, " and I doubt if it is at any 
time different in color from what we find it to-day — at least, below 
Seville. As you say, it is far from blue." 

As the yacht gained headway down the river it passed extensive 
groves of orange - trees, hills covered with olive plantations, and with 
open fields in which horses and cattle were grazing. At several places 
on the banks there were piles of huge jars intended for olive-oil ; they 
were the exact pattern of the amphorae of the Romans, and reminded 
Mary of the story of Morgiana and the Forty Thieves. These jars are 
made in pottery - Avorks which were originally established by the Ro- 
mans, and have never been entirely given up. The mode of making 
the jars is almost identical with that of two thousand years ago, the 
potters being quite contented to follow in the footsteps of their ances- 
tors and do as they did. Spain is not a progressive country. 

The yacht passed between two islands, one of them twenty or more 
miles in length, and came out where the river broadened into an estu- 
ary. Mountains were visible in the distance, but the banks of the 
Guadalquivir were fiat and monotonous ; few villages were to be seen, 
and the Avhole plain seemed given up to the pasturage of cattle and 
horses, and to the habitation of such birds as chose to make it their 
home, but they did not appear to be numerous. 

Doctor Bronson explained the sparseness of population by saying 
that though this region is favorable to vegetation and to cattle and 
horses, it is unsuited to man, being as full of fever-breeding malaria as 
the Roman Campagna. " Cattle grow fat and sleek," said he ; " but 
the peasants who care for the herds are yellow and sickly in appear- 
ance, and almost never reach what is called a ripe old age." 



BONANZA AND CADIZ. 



537 



At the little port of Bonanza, at the mouth of the river, the 3^acht 
halted long enough to exchange her river -pilot for a marine one. 
Then she pushed out into the Atlantic, so as to get a good offing before 
turning in the direction of Gibraltar. The captain did not wish to take 
any risk of being run upon the rocks along the coast, and told the 
pilot to give a very wide berth to Cadiz and Cape Trafalgar, and also 
to Cape Tarifa, around which the yacht would pass as she entered the 
Mediterranean and left the Atlantic behind her. 

A fairly good view was obtained of Cadiz, but it was a general view 
only, the yacht being too far out to sea for the detail of the picture to 
be made out with distinctness. Cape Trafalgar was passed in the night, 
somewhat to the disappointment of Frank and Fred, who wished to 




SPANISH JARS. 



look upon the scene of Lord l^elson's great victory. Mrs. Bassett 
asked about the famous battle and when it took place and what it 
was about, to which Fred replied as follows : 

'*' It was one of the greatest naval battles known in history, and 
occurred on October 21, 1805, between an Enghsh fleet of twenty- 



538 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

seven ships and a combined French and Spanish fleet of thirty-three 
ships — eighteen French and fifteen Spanish." 

" The English had the smaller number of ships," said Mrs. Bassett, 
" and yet they were victorious. How did it happen ?" 

"To attempt to explain the results of the battle would lead us into 
a long account of the affair, and perhaps we would be no w^ser at 
the end than when we began. Suffice it to say the English fleet suc- 
ceeded in capturing or destroying nineteen of their adversaries, and 
putting the rest to flight. Lord I^elson, w^ho commanded on the Eng- 
lish side, was killed during the battle, and was succeeded by Admiral 
Colling wood. The signal w4iich Nelson hoisted when going into bat- 
tle has become historical, and is quoted very frequently." 

'• What is that ?" 

" ' England expects every man to do his duty,' " replied Fred. 

" Immediately after the signal was hoisted the battle began ; Lord 
J^elson was killed by a musket-ball fired from the French ship Redoubt- 
dble^ which engaged the Victory, the English flag-ship, at close quarters ; 
but his death was not generally known in the fleet until after the day's 
work was over. It Avas in honor of Lord I^elson and in commemora- 
tion of the battle that Trafalgar Square in London was built, and the 
monument to the great naval hero placed in its centre." 

" We shall pass another place whose name has become famous in 
history," said Frank ; " perhaps I should more properly sa}^ it was the 
origin of a word that is the subject of a vast amount of discussion." 

" I know what you refer to," exclaimed Mary. " It is Tarifa, where 
duties on goods are said to have been first collected, and from which 
our word tariff is derived." 

" That is it exactly," Frank answered. " Tarifa is a very old city, 
as it existed long before the Romans came to Spain, but it is now a 
small one, and one of the most Moorish in appearance of all the cities 
of the kingdom. At the present time it is interesting chiefly from its 
position, which is the most southerly in Europe and on a rocky penin- 
sula jutting out into the sea." 

Other conversation followed in which various questions were asked 
and answered, among them being an inquiry as to the Strait of Gib- 
raltar and its length and width. Frank explained that the strait be- 
gins at Cape Trafalgar, which is about twenty-four miles from the near- 
est point in Africa, and ends at Europa Point, Gibraltar, forty miles from 
Trafalgar, and distant about twenty miles from the nearest African 
shore. The narrowest part is at Tarifa Point, where its width does not 



ARRIVAL AT GIBRALTAR. 



539 



exceed ten miles ; in certain conditions of the wind sailing-vessels are 
compelled to go quite close to the fort at Tarifa, and this circumstance 
rendered the collection of duties comparatively easy in the days before 
steamships were invented. At present the blockade of the strait 
could only be made effective by a powerful fleet, as the gantlet of the 
old forts might be run by steam-vessels with comparatively little risk. 

Bright and early 
in the morning our 
friends w^ere all on 
deck, impatient for 
their first glimpse of 
Gibraltar, one of the 
strongest fortresses 
of the world — or, at 
least, so reputed. It 
has often been com- 
pared to the figure 
of a crouching lion 
with its gaze turned 
in the direction of 
Africa, and, as they 
looked at it, each one 
of our party of trav- 
ellers noted the re- 
semblance, which is 
by no means a flight 
of fancy. The shape 
is more readily per- 
ceived when the rock ^o^d nelson. 
is several miles away 

from the observer than when it is close at hand, and is said to have been 
mentioned in the time of the Eomans and possibly before their day. 

In reply to a question by Mary, Frank said that the Rock of Gibral- 
tar was known to the ancients, but never inhabited ; it was one of the 
Pillars of Hercules, Abyla being the African one, beyond which stran- 
gers, in the times of the Phoenicians, were not allowed to navigate. 

" Coming down to later times," said Frank, " we find that the name 
of the rock is derived from its Moorish conqueror, Gebal-Tarik, wiio 
took possession of it in the eighth century; the Moors held it for more 
than seven centuries, with the exception of a short period of twenty-five 




540 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



years, and its possession during the time since their expulsion has been 
about equally divided between Spain and England." 

" The English have it now," said Mrs. Bassett, as Frank paused, 
'^ and will probably keep it, too, will they not ?" 

" Most assuredly," was the reply. " It is one of the military and 
naval stations of the British empire that carries the beat of her morn- 
ing drum around the world. Great Britain is as likely to abandon its 
beer and pale ale as to give up Gibraltar, Malta, Aden, or Hong-Kong. 
It has made Gibraltar capable of resisting attacks by land and sea, and 
it is currently reported that the place is constantly provisioned and sup- 
plied with ammunition suiRcient for a siege of thirty years." 

" Thirty years ! is that really so ? How is it possible ?" 

" As to that I am unable to say, but am only repeating the current 
report. The public is allowed to know nothing about affairs in Gibral- 




GIBRALTAR. 



SIGHTS OF GIBRALTAR. 541 

tar, except what the authorities choose to tell or show them, or what 
by their nature cannot be concealed. It is very certain that Gib- 
raltar is abundantly supplied with everything that would be needed for 
resisting a siege longer than anything that is likely to occur in the pres- 
ent day. France and Spain besieged the rock for four years (1779 to 
1783) with a great force of troops on land and a powerful fleet on the 
water, but all to no purpose, and the facilities for defence in those days 
were much less than they are now, as I will explain. 

" The sides of the rock are seamed with batteries, and there are bat- 
teries all along the water-front wherever a landing might be effected by 
hostile troops. In the past ten years many new cannon have been put 
in position, new forts have been built, and the defences greatly strength- 
ened. But the work is by no means completed, as the improvements in 
modern artillery constantly call for something additional, and the prob- 
abihties are that the strengthening of Gibraltar will not be finished as 
long as civilization exists, and nations continue to maintam their inde- 
pendence and their dread of each other." 

" A happy time that none of us will ever see," Fred remarked, as 
the yacht turned into Gibraltar Bay and gradually slackened her speed 
as she approached her anchorage, when she stopped. 

The party landed immediately and proceeded to the principal hotel, 
where they met the owner of the yacht, who had been informed by tele- 
graph of their departure from Seville, and notified by signal from the 
summit of the rock of the boat's arrival in port. He received the thanks 
of each and all the travellers for his courtesy, but the cheers, with 
"three times three and a tiger," were deferred until such time as the 
host and his guests should be better acquainted. 

For an account of what the party saw in Gibraltar we will refer to 
the extract we are permitted to make from Frank's journal. 

" From the point of view of the ordinary tourist," said Frank, " it 
doesn't take long to see the sights of Gibraltar. The great object of 
interest is the rock itself, the galleries cut in its sides for holding can- 
non, and the signal-station on the summit, 1437' feet above the level of 
the sea below us. A superior pedestrian may make the journey on foot, 
but as we are only ordinary walkers we preferred to hire donkeys and 
horses which are not expensive. 

" We engaged a guide and the necessary saddle animals, and had an 
excursion that occupied four or five hours. The galleries are tunnelled 
in the rock in tiers along its face, and the openings for the cannon are 
concealed as much as possible by means of vines and bushes, so that it 



542 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



is impossible to make out their position, when one looks from the bay 
with the most powerful telescope. Even if they could be seen they 
would be very poor targets, and the gunners within the galleries would 
run hardly any risk whatever Avhile pouring showers of shot on a hostile 

fleet below. Most of the 
galleries are twelve feet 
wide by as many high ; 
in several places they 
are enlarged into halls, 
all cut from the solid 
rock. The largest is St. 
George's Hall, forty-five 
feet long by forty in 
width, and twenty feet 
high ; it is celebrated for 
a banquet that was given 
in it to Lord JN'elson just 
before the famous battle 
of Trafalgar. 

" It made us dizzy to 
look from the embrasures 
in St. George's Hall and 
in other parts of the gal- 
leries. It was a sheer de- 
scent for hundreds of feet 
down to the base of the 
rock, and for other hun- 
dreds the solid mass tow- 
ered above us. It would 
be absolutely impossible 
for the most active acro- 
bat to scale the face of 
the rocky precipice, and 
a waste of ammunition for an enemy to attempt to batter it down. 

" We were shown through the galleries by an artillery sergeant, who 
hinted that there were other galleries in the rock which were not shown 
to strangers, and there is certainly no reason why there may not be ten 
or twenty times as many as those we saw. I observed, by the way, 
that the cannon in the galleries are of an antiquated pattern, old-fash- 
ioned smooth-bores, loading at the muzzle, and far behind the cannon of 




THK SUMMIT OF THE ROCK. 



THE TOP OF THE ROCK. 543 

the present day. It is hardly to be supposed that the military authori- 
ties are unaware of this circumstance, and it is more than probable that 
they have a plentiful supply of modern guns ready to be mounted at 
any short notice in case of trouble. 

"From the galleries we ascended to the signal -station, which has 
been a signal-station or beacon from very ancient times. On the way 
we caught sight of a dozen or more apes that have long resided, they 
and their predecessors, on the rock, and are carefully preserved. They 
are of the same kind as those for which King Solomon sent to Thar- 
shish, as mentioned in I. Kings, chapter x., and the tradition is that 
they came from Africa by means of a subterranean passage under the 
strait, as they are averse to swimming. 

" We had a splendid view from the signal-tower, embracing parts of 
two continents as we looked north or south, the Atlantic Ocean to the 
westward, and the Mediterranean when we turned our faces to the east. 
The Bay of Gibraltar, the town, and Europa Point seemed so nearly 
below us that we might almost toss a biscuit or a penny upon them, 
but we would have found ourselves grievously mistaken had we made 
the attempt. The length of the rock is about three miles, and it is not 
far from a mile across at its broadest point. 

" St. Michael's Cave is one of the curiosities of the place, and we vis- 
ited it after leaving the signal-station. The guide lighted some torches, 
and we went perhaps three hundred feet into the mountain, following 
a zigzag path among huge stalactites and fantastically-shaped columns 
that support the roof, which is very high in places. 

" After some of the caves we have seen, this one of St. Michael does 
not amount to much, and we were glad to get out of it. It is reputed 
to be the entrance to the subterranean passage by which the apes were 
said to cross and recross between Europe and Africa, but I have serious 
doubts as to their having done anything of the kind. They could not 
make their way through twenty miles of darkness without torches, and 
no ape or monkey was ever known to light a torch or a fire of any kind, 
■or to keep one going after it was lighted. And, furthermore, I don't 
believe there is any underground route between the two continents, nor 
does any other member of our party believe the story. 

" When we had finished with St. Michael's Cave we returned to the 
town, and in the afternoon went to Europa Point and the Alameda or 
Esplanade. The drive is delightful all the way from Commercial Square 
to the end of the rock, and we greatly enjoyed it. 

" I can't begin to tell you all that we saw in our drive, nor can I 



544 



THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 



give an adequate picture of the Alameda, which is a delightful garden 
where formerly there w^as nothing but a sandy desert. General Don, 
who commanded here in 1814, converted it into a garden, and subse- 
quent commanders have added to his work and made it one of the most 
delightful spots Ave have seen since leaving Italy." 

After dinner that evening Doctor Bronson invited Frank and Fred to 
accompany him to the club, for which he had received cards for himself 
and the youths, promising to return speedily to the parlor, w^here they 

would join Mrs. Bassett 
and Mary. 

" Something's in the 
wind," said Mary, as soon 
as the trio had departed. 
" They've gone to talk 
over plans for our next 
move, I'm sure." 

'' That's what I sus- 
pect," responded her 
mother. " Well, w^e're in 
good hands, and w^hatever 
they agree upon will be 
satisfactory to both of 
us." 

Mary assented em- 
phatically to Mrs. Bas- 
sett's assertion, and then 
the conversation turned 
to what they had seen 
during the day. They 
were in the midst of their 
talk when the Doctor and 
the youths returned and 
joined them in the parlor, 
accompanied by the gen- 
tleman in whose yacht the 
party came from Seville. 




STREET SCENE IN GIBRALTAR,. 



